!>*!!?. 



'he 5orfpfoPM 



^^*^ 



spiritualism ? 



PROOFS 



THAT IT IS DEMONISM. 



Who are "Tlje Spirits in Prison?" 

And Why are They There? 



1897. 

WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY, 
ALLEGHEV 



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spiritualism ? 

PROOFS 
THAT IT IS DEMONISM. 



ALSO - 



Who a*e "Tl}e Spirits in Prison ?" 

And Why ai<e They Thera? 



-*- 



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WATCH TOWEK '^M >& TliACT SOCIETY^ 
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of late, and meeting with considerable success in en- 
trapping Christians who are feeling dissatisfied with 
their present attainments and craving spiritual food and 
a better foundation for faith. 

The aim is to show the unscripturalness of Spirit- 
ism, and to point those who hunger and thirst for truth 
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Most High. 

' Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and after- 
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WHAT SAY THE SC^IPTU^ES 
ABOUT SPlSlTISfll? 



PROOFS THAT IT IS DEMONISM. 



fH A T which we believe to be the truth respect- 
ing Spiritism is antagonized from two stand- 
points, (i) The majority of people have no confidence 
in Spiritism, but believe its claimed manifestations and 
proofs are fraudulent. (2) An increasingly large num- 
ber are disposed to deny the existence of the evil spirit 
beings called demons, and of the prince of demons, 
called in the Scriptures the Devil and Satan. 
Rev. Adam Clark, D. D., has well said, — 
1 'Satan knows well that those who deny his being 
will not be afraid of his power and influence; will not 
watch against his wiles and devices; will not pray to 
God for deliverance from the Evil One; will not expedl 
him to be trampled down under their feet, if he has no 
existence; and, consequently, they will become an easy 
and unopposing prey to the enemy of their souls. By 
leading men to disbelieve and deny his existence, he 
throws them off their guard. He is then their com- 
plete master, and they are led captive by him at his 
will. It is well known that among all those who make 
any profession of religion, those who deny the exist- 
ence of the Devil, are those who pray little or none at 
all; and are, apparently, as careless about the exist- 

3 



4 What Say the Scriptures? 

ence of God as they are about the being of the Devil. 
Duty to God is with them out of the question; for those 
who do not pray, especially in private, — and I never 
saw a devil-denier who did, — have no religion of any 
kind, except the form, whatever pretentions they may 
choose to make." 

If it be asked how Spiritism could do injury to 
those who consider its claims to be deceptions and 
frauds and its votaries to be dupes, we answer that a 
large majority of its votaries are those who at one time 
thoroughly and heartily denied its claims and consid- 
ered them impositions. Those who most thoroughly 
disbelieve in Spiritism are often the most ready to test 
its professed claims; and when convinced that many of 
its claims are genuine and many of its manifestations 
supernatural, these former disbelievers are more liable 
to become its devotees: w T hereas, if they had known 
just what Spiritism is, and how and by what power it 
operates, they would be on guard, and their judgment 
would have a support and guidance which it otherwise 
lacks. It is the lack of the true knowledge of Spirit- 
ism (imparted through the Scriptures and confirmed 
by indisputable evidences from outside the Scriptures) 
which causes so many to fall a prey to this delusion. 
True, there are frauds committed in the name of Spir- 
itism; but these are chiefly in connection with attempt- 
ed "materializations." That Spiritists have done and 
can do, through some power or agency, many wonder- 
ful works beyond the power of man, has been abun- 
dantly proved in a variety of cases — some of them be- 
fore scientific men, total unbelievers. Tambourines 
have been played while in the air beyond the reach of 
human hand and suspended by some invisible power; 
chairs have been lifted into the air while people were 



Spiritism — Demonism. 5 

sitting upon them, and without any connection with 
any visible power or agency; mediums have been float- 
ed through the air, etc. The rapping tests, the table- 
tipping tests, the autograph tests and the slate- writing 
tests have been proved over and over again, to the sat- 
isfaction of hundreds of intelligent people in various 
parts of the world And Spiritism reckons amongst 
its adherents judges, lawyers, business-men and num- 
bers of women of ability. These people have tested the 
claims of Spiritism and have candidly avowed their 
faith in it. And it is unwise, to say the least, to sneer 
at such as fools or knaves — fools if simply deluded by 
tricks and slight of hand; knaves if they are willingly 
and knowingly lending their time and influence to the 
perpetration of frauds. 

The writer was inclined to be skeptical with refer- 
ence to all the various claims of Spiritism until con- 
vinced to the contrary by a Christian man, in whose 
testimony he was justified in having full confidence. 
This friend was not a believer in Spiritism but, being 
thrown into the company of some Spiritists for an even- 
ing, the suggestion was made, "L,et us have a seance." 
The company present assented; our friend remaining 
from curiosity. They sat down to a table, placed their 
hands upon it in the usual manner, and one of the 
number present being a medium inquired, "Are there 
any spirits present ?' ' The answer indicated by raps 
upon the table — one for A, two for B, three for C, etc., 
spelled out the information that spirits were present, 
but that they would hold no communication that even- 
ing. The medium asked "Why?" The answer rapped 
out was, "Because new mediums are being appointed 
all over the United States. ' ' The company was disap- 



6 What Say the Scriptures 9 

pointed and through the medium asked that as a test 
the name of some prominent person dying that night 
should be communicated. The request was complied 
with and the name of a Russian dignitary, which we 
cannot now recall, was spelled out. This was before 
the Atlantic cable was laid, and my friend, anxious to 
test the matter, kept watch of the newspapers and fi- 
nally, nearly a month after (the time requisite for 
Russian mails in those days) he saw the announcement 
of the death of the Russian notable bearing that very 
name. 

Our friend was convinced that Spiritism was not 
all a "hoax," and was anxious for another meeting. 
When it took place, in view of the answer at the pre- 
vious meeting, the medium inquired, ''Are there any 
mediums present? and, if so, how many?" The answer 
was, "Four." The medium asked the spirit to please 
indicate which four of those present were mediums, 
and as each one called his name the mediums were in- 
dicated by a rap upon the table, by some invisible 
agent. Our friend was one of those indicated and right 
proud he felt of the honor. This occurred in Wheel- 
ing, W. Va. Shortly after he came to Allegheny, Pa. , 
and visited an aunt, a widow, who with her family re- 
sided here. Anxious to display his newly conferred 
powers as a medium, he asked his aunt and her daughter 
to join him in a "seance." They were surprised, and 
the daughter said, "Why, are you a medium? I am 
a rapping medium also, brother Harry is a tipping 
medium and mother is a writing and trance medium." 
Our friend had never witnessed the powers of any but 
rapping mediums, and was very anxious that his aunt 
should display the powers of her mediumship, and was 



Spiritism — Demonism. 7 

shown writing done by her which was an exadl fac- 
simile of his dead uncle's autograph upon checks. And 
strange, too, his uncle wrote a fine hand, while his 
aunt could not write at all, except under this influence. 
Wishing to test her powers as a talking medium, 
the three surrounded a small table, and the aunt called 
for a spirit to communicate through her. The answer 
given was that there would be no communication, be- 
cause there were no unbelievers present to convince. 
They persisted, however, and got the aunt to call again 
for the spirit. The answer this time was that her hands 
were forcibly lifted from the table and brought down 
upon it with a bang. This was something surprising 
to them all. The spirits evidently were provoked at 
the pertinacity of a second call after their refusal. 
But after discussing the matter for some ten minutes 
our friend prevailed upon his aunt to call again for the 
spirits and see what else would happen. She complied, 
and in response her hands were lifted from the table and 
brought down with fearful concussion, three times in 
rapid succession, sounding as tho every bone would be 
broken; and with her eyes staring out wildly and shriek- 
ing Oh! Oh! Oh! she jumped from the table in a semi- 
delirious condition. 

That spirit, whoever it may have been, was evidently 
angry and wanted it understood that it could not be 
trifled with. Our friend informs us that never after 
that would his aunt have anything to do with Spiritism 
as a medium — she had caution enough to let it alone. 
But our friend was anxious to witness the powers of a 
1 'tipping medium/ ' and in the evening when his cousin 
Harry came home he insisted on having an exhibition 
of his mediumship. Harry complied and amongst other 



8 What Say the Scriptures f 

tests was the following: — He placed a small, light table 
in the center of the floor and said, "I call for the spirit 
of our old dog Dash to come into this table.' ' Then 
addressing the table he said, "Come Dash!" The table 
balanced itself on two feet and hobbled after him around 
the room. 

I should here remark that our friend who vouches 
for these matters will no longer exercise any of his 
powers as a medium. He is a prominent Christian man 
now living in this city: his views with reference to 
Spiritism are now the same that we are here endeavor- 
ing to present. 

The claim of Spiritists is, that these manifestations 
and communications from unseen intelligences are from 
human beings, who once lived in this world, but who, 
when seeming to die really became more alive, more in- 
telligent, freer, and every way more capable and com- 
petent than they had ever been before. It is claimed 
that the purpose of these manifestations is to prove 
that the dead are not dead y but alive; — that there is no 
need of a resurrection of the dead, because there are 
no dead; — the dead being more alive than ever, after 
passing into what is termed death. We shall not stop 
here to show how inharmonious all this is to the testi- 
mony of Scripture upon this subjedt, but merely cite 
the reader to the Word of the L,ord; reminding him that, 
"If there be no resurrection of the dead, . . . then they 
also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished" — 
i Cor. 15: 13, 18; Job 14:21; Psa. 146:4; Eccl. 9:5, 6. 

Here is the point of infatuation. As soon as the 
unbeliever in Spiritism has been convinced that an un- 
seen intelligence communicates through the medium 
he is all interest. Nothing else offers such proofs from 



Spiritism — Demonism. 9 

invisible sources as does Spiritism; and many seem not 
only willing but anxious to walk by sight rather than 
by faith. Every one has friends who have died, and 
thousands are anxious to communicate with them if 
possible, and to receive from them some message or 
some advice. It is not surprising, therefore, to find 
people greatly absorbed in these matters, and very will- 
ing to be diredled by those whom they esteem their 
truest friends and most competent advisers. 

They visit a medium for the purpose of holding 
communication with the dead. The medium describes 
the hair, the eyes, etc., and certain little peculiari- 
ties, such as a mole or an injured or deformed finger 
or foot (which the father or son or sister or wife iden- 
tifies as the description of the loved one deceased) 
and delivers a message which, however vague or in- 
definite, is construed to be very important. The no- 
vices are filled with a sort of reverent joy mixed with 
a humble feeling of the inferiority of their own condi- 
tion, and with a pride that they have been counted 
worthy to receive communications from "the spirit 
world,' ' while so many good and great people are not 
so favored, but are "blind to the wonderful fadls of 
Spiritism. ,, The feelings thus started are somewhat 
akin to some kinds of religious feeling s y and straight- 
way the ' 'converts' ' are ready to believe and obey the 
advice and instructions of those whom they believe to 
be so much wiser and holier than themselves, and so 
deeply interested in their welfare, present and eternal, 
as to leave the joys and ministries of heaven to com- 
mune with them and instrudl them. 

The majority of people have no true Christian 
faith built upon the foundation of the Word of God: 



io What Say the Scriptures? 

they have a wish for a future life, and a hope with ref- 
erence to their dead, rather than a faith with reference 
to either. As a consequence, their minds being con- 
vinced that they have had communication with those 
beyond the grave, everything relating to the future life 
becomes more real and more interesting to them than 
ever before. And many such, wholly ignorant of re- 
ligious feelings, say to themselves, Now I know what 
it is to have faith, and a religious feeling with refer- 
ence to the future, and they congratulate themselves 
that they have received a great spiritual blessing. 

But this is only the first lesson, and these compar- 
atively uplifting experiences belong chiefly to it. Later 
experiences will demonstrate, as all Spiritists will free- 
ly acknowledge, that there are "evil spirits," "lying 
spirits/' which time and again deceive them; and the 
messages and revelations, often foolish and nonsensi- 
cal, gradually lead the investigator to a disbelief of the 
Bible and the Creator, while it teaches and exalts "the 
spirits" a$ the only sources of knowledge aside from 
nature; and thus the way is paved toward advanced 
lessons on "spirit-affinities/ 9 "free love," etc. But 
after the first deception and shaking of confidence the 
explanation that there are "both good and bad spirits" 
is generally satisfactory; and the poor vidlim follows 
blindly on, because assured that he communes with 
some supernatural power. 

As an illustration of this we mention the case of 
an old gentleman, a Pittsburger, an avowed Spiritist 
and an earnest defender of Spiritism. We knew some- 
thing of his history through a mutual friend; how that, 
while holding a communication through a medium, 
supposedly his "evoluted" wife, the latter said to him: 



Spiritism — Demonism. 1 1 

"John, I am perfectly happy only for one w~ A ng; and 
that is on your account.' ' He answered, "O Mary, 
do not allow my affairs to mar your bliss! I am com- 
paratively happy for an old man and comparatively 
comfortable." But the answer came, "O no, John, 
I know better. I know that you are lonely, very lone- 
ly, that you miss me very much, and are suffering from 
lack of many little attentions; and that your home is 
comparatively dreary. * ' Mr. N. had full confidence in 
Mary ' s j udgment , and the message carried great weight ; 
and his home and its affairs gradually grew less happi- 
fying, and he gradually grew dissatisfied; and so at a 
subsequent ' 'seance* * he inquired of Mary what he 
could do that would relieve her burden and make her 
bliss complete. She replied that he should find a suit- 
able companion and re-marry. But the old gentleman 
(seventy years old) objedled that even if he could find 
a suitable companion, such a one would not have him. 
But at frequent interviews the supposed spirit of his 
wife insisted, and as he thought further over the matter 
he grew more lonely, and finally asked Mary to choose 
for him, as she had so much better judgment than any 
earthly being could have on the subjedl. The medium 
affedled great indignation at the answer, and would 
not communicate it at first. The more she objected to 
giving the answer, the more anxious Mr. N. became 
to have it, and finally the medium explained that the 
spirit of his wife had said that Mr. N. should marry 
her (the medium); but that she was indignant that the 
spirit should think that she would marry an old man 
like him. 

But the more Mr. N. thought the matter over the 
more he was inclined to be, as he supposed, led by the 



12 What Say the Scriptures? 

good spirit of his wife into ways of pleasantness and 
into paths of peace; and he urged upon the medium 
that it was the duty of humanity to obey the behests 
of their best friends in the ' 'spirit world. ' • Finally the 
medium consented that if he would deed over to her what 
property he possessed she would agree to follow the 
directions of the spirit and marry him. The matter was 
consummated in legal form, and Mr. N. with his medium 
wife and her daughter proposed to make the formerly 
cold and cheerless home of Mr. N. all that his spirit- 
wife had wished for him. It was a very short time, 
however, before the poor old gentleman was very glad 
to abandon home and all, to get free from the two 
"she- devils," as he afterward knew them. 

But did not this shake the confidence of Mr. N. 
in Spiritism ? By no means. He merely communi- 
cated with his wife again through another medium and 
was informed that a lying spirit had misrepresented 
her entirely and that she had given no such bad advice. 
Knowing these fadls concerning his history when we 
met him shortly after, and he tried to urge upon the 
writer the claims of Spiritism, we said to him, "Mr. 
N., we will admit that Spiritism is backed by some 
super-human phenomena, but we deny that the pow- 
ers which communicate represent themselves truthful- 
ly. They claim to be friends and relatives who once 
lived in this world, but the Scriptures assure us to the 
contrary of this that there is no work or knowledge or 
device in the grave, and that the dead know not any- 
thing. (Eccl. 9: 5, 10 ) They declare that the only 
hope of a future life is by a resurredlion from the dead. 
You know, Mr. N., that whatever these powers may 
be which claim to be the spirits of your friends, their 



Spiritism — Demonism. 13 

testimony is entirely unreliable. You cannot believe 
their most solemn declarations. They are what the 
Scriptures term * 'lying spirits.' ' We proceeded to give 
him, as we are about to give in this article, the identi- 
ty of these spirits as set forth in the Scriptures. He 
heartily assented that some of the spirits were unreli- 
able, "thoroughly bad," but claimed that others were 
very good, very truthful, and had frequently given 
good advice which had been very helpful to him. 

It is claimed by many Spiritists, especially by no- 
vices, that the influence of Spiritism is elevating; but 
those who have passed through the various stages of 
experience in this so- called religious system have found, 
and have publicly declared, that its influence is quite 
the reverse of elevating — it is demoralizing. 

The method of operation is explained by The Ban- 
ner of Light, a leading Spiritist paper, in answer to 
the query, thus: — 

1 'Q. Where a spirit controls the hand of a medium 
to write, is the impression always made through the 
brain ? 

"A. Sometimes the control is what is termed me- 
chanical control; then the connection between arm and 
brain is entirely severed, and yet the manifestation is 
made through what is called the nervous fluids, a cer- 
tain portion of which is retained in the arm for the pur- 
pose of adtion. But when the manifestation is what is 
called an impressional manifestation, then the brain 
and entire nervous system is used." 

Explaining the difference between Mesmerism and 
spirit control, another journel, the Spiritual Age, says: 

"Suppose I magnitize you to day; and that I, the 
mesmerizer, speak, write, adt through you, you being 
unconscious;— this is Mesmerism. Suppose, further, 
that I die to-night; and that, to-morrow, I, a spirit, 



14 What Say the Scriptures? 

come and magnetize you, and then speak, write, 
adl through you; this is Spiritualism [Spiritism]." 

The value of Spiritism to the world is thus summed 
up by the well known Horace 1,. Hastings: — 

"According to the theory of Spiritualists there are 
a hundred times as many disembodied spirits about us 
as there are men in the flesh. Among them are all the 
poets, authors, orators, musicians and inventors of past 
ages. They know all they ever knew when they were 
in the flesh, and have been learning a great deal more 
since; and with their added powers and extended ex- 
perience they should be able to do what mortals have 
never done before. They have had free access to the 
public mind and public press, with no end of mediums 
ready to receive their communications, and thousands 
and thousands of inquirers who have anxiously ques- 
tioned them, and earnestly desired to obtain information 
from them. They have had tables and slates and pens 
and pencils and banjos and pianos and cabinets and 
bells and violins and guitars; and what have we to show 
for it all ? Their business in this world has been to 
instrudl men, to help them, to make them wiser and 
better. They have talked and rapped, they have tipped 
and rattled, they have fiddled and scribbled, they have 
materialized and dematerialized, they have entranced 
and exhibited; they have told us many things which 
we knew before; many thing which we do not know 
yet; and many other things which it was no matter 
whether we knew or not; but when we come to real in- 
struction, reliable information, or profitable and valu- 
able knowledge, Spiritualism is as barren as Sahara, 
as empty as a hollow gourd/ ' 

WHO ARE THESE SPIRITS WHICH PERSONATE 

THE DEAD? 
We have in the Scriptures most abundant and 
most positive testimony that no communication could 
come from the dead until after the resurrection. Fur- 



Spiritism — Demonism. 1 5 

thermore, we have positive Scripture testimony (1) 
that not only some, but all, of these spirits are "evil 
spirits," "lying spirits," " seducing spirits. ' ' The 
Scriptures forbid that humanity should seek to these 
for information, and clearly inform us that these de- 
mons or "devils" are "those angels which kept not 
their first estate, " — some of the angels to whom was 
committed the supervision of mankind in the period 
before the flood, for the purpose of permitting them to 
endeavor to lift mankind out of sin; that by their fail- 
ure all might learn that there is but one effectual rem- 
edy for sin; viz, , that provided in Christ. These angels, 
instead of uplifting humanity, were themselves enticed 
into sin, and misused the power granted them, of ma- 
terializing in human form, to start another race. (Gen. 
6: 1-6 ) Their illicit progeny, was blotted out with 
the flood, and themselves were thereafter restrained 
from the liberty of assuming physical bodies, as well as 
isolated from the holy angels who had kept their an- 
gelic estate inviolate. 

The Apostle Peter (2 Pet. 2:4) mentions these, 
saying, "God spared riot the angels that sinned, but 
cast them down to hell \Tartarus\ and delivered them 
into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto j udgment. ' ' 
Jude (6) also mentions this class, saying, "The angels 
which kept not their first estate, but left their own 
habitation [proper condition] he hath reserved in ever- 
lasting chains — under darkness unto the judgment of 
the great day." Notice three points with reference to 
these evil angels. 

( 1 ) They are imprisoned in Tartarus , restrained, 
but not destroyed. Tartarus is nowhere else rendered 
"hell," but in this one passage. It does not signify 



1 6 What Say the Scriptures? 

the grave, neither does it signify the Second Death, 
symbolized by the "lake of fire and brimstone;" but 
it does signify the air or atmosphere of earth. 

(2) They have some liberties in this imprisoned 
condition, yet they are chained, or restrained, in one 
respedl — they are not permitted to exercise their powers 
in the light being "under chains of darkness.'* 

(3) This restriction was to continue until "the 
judgment of the great day," the great Millennial 
Day — in all a period of over 4,000 years. As we are 
now in the dawning of the Millennial Day — "the great 
day" — it is possible that this should be understood to 
mean that some of these limitations as to "darkness" 
may ere long be removed, gradually, If so, if the 
"chains of darkness" should be released, it would per- 
mit these evil spirits to work deceptions or "lying 
wonders" in the daylight (as they are now attempting 
to do) to the delusion of mankind more than ever has 
been known since the flood. 

These fallen angels, or demons, are not to be con- 
founded with Satan the prince of demons, or devils, 
whose evil career began long before — who was the 
first, and for a long time the only, enemy of the divine 
government; who, having been created an angel of a 
superior order, sought to establish himself as a rival 
to the Almighty, and to deceive and ensnare Adam 
and his race to be his servants; and to a large extent, 
for a time at least, he has succeeded, as all know. As 
"the prince of this world," who "now worketh in the 
hearts of the children of disobedience," he has indeed 
a very multitudinous host of deceived and enslaved 
followers. Naturally he would appreciate the deflec- 
tion of the "angels who kept not their first estate," 



Spiritism— Demonism. 17 

and who were restrained at the time of the flood; and 
hence he is spoken of as their chief, "the prince of 
devils;' ' and no doubt as a superior order of being he 
exercises some degree of control over the others. 

These fallen angels, "demons," have probably 
very little to interest them amongst themselves; — evil 
beings apparently always prefer to make game of the 
purer, and apparently take pleasure in corrupting and 
degrading them. The history of these demons, as given 
in the Scriptures, would seem to show that the evil 
concupiscence which led to their fall, before the flood, 
still continues with them. They still have their prin- 
cipal pleasure in that which is lascivious and degrad- 
ing; and the general tendency of their influence upon 
mankind is toward working mischief against the well- 
disposed, and the debauchery of those over whom they 
gain absolute control. 

We are well aware that many Christian people 
have reached the conclusion that the Lord and the 
apostles were deceived, when they attributed to the 
works of demons condudl that is now considered human 
propensity and mental unbalance and fits. But all 
should admit that if our Lord was in error on this sub- 
jedl, his teachings would be an unsafe guide upon any 
subjedt. 

Notice the personality and intelligence attributed 
to these demons in the following Scriptures — "Thou 
belie vest that there is one God; thou doest well; devils 
also believe and tremble." (Jas. 2: 19.) Do human pro- 
pensities ' 'believe and tremble ? ' * The demons said to 
our Lord, "Thou art Christ, the Son of God! And he, 
rebuking them 9 suffered them not to speak [further] , 
for they knew that he was Christ.' ' (Luke 4:41.) 



1 8 What Say the Scriptures? 

Another said, ■ c Jesus / know and Paul / know y but who 
are ye?" (Acts 19:15.) The young woman from 
whom Paul cast out the spirit of soothsaying and divi- 
nation (Adls 16:16-19) is a good illustration. Can it 
be claimed by any that the Apostle deprived the woman 
of any proper talent or power ? Must it not be con- 
fessed to have been a spirit which possessed and used 
her body ? — an evil spirit unfit to be tolerated there ? 

Many of those who claim that the demons of the 
Scriptures were the spirits of wicked men and women 
who died, and that these are the "lying spirits' ' ack- 
nowledged by Spiritists, have still another difficulty; — 
for generally they claim that the spirits of wicked dead 
go to hell-torments, as they wrongly interpret sheol 
and hades to mean.* If so, how could they be so much 
at liberty ? 

"Witchcraft," "Necromancy," the "Black art," 
"Sorcery," etc., are supposed by many to be wholly 
delusions. But when we find that they had a firm hold 
upon the Egyptians, and that God made special pro- 
vision against them with Israel, we are satisfied that 
he made no such restrictions either against that which 
is good, or against that which had no existence what- 
ever. The instruction to Israel was very explicit: they 
should not have any communion nor make any inquir- 
ies through necromancers (those who claimed to speak 
for the dead; i. e., spirit-mediums); nor with any wiz- 
ard or witch; nor with any who had occult powers, 

* See "What Say the Scriptures About Hell?" a pamphlet in 
which every text of S :ripture containing the word hell is cited and ex- 
amined in the hjht of Scripture and reason, together with other Script- 
ures and parables supposed to teach eternal torment. Price IO cents. 
For sale by Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, Allegheny, Pa. 



Spiritism — Demonism. 1 9 

charms; nor with those who work miracles by means 
of sorcery and incantation. — Read carefully all of the 
following Scriptures, — Exod. 22: 18; Deut. 18:9-12; 
Lev. 19:31; 20:6, 27; 2 Kings 21: 2, 6, 9, 11; 1 Chron. 
10:13, 14; Adls 16:16-18; Gal. 5:19-21; Rev. 21:8; 
Isa. 8: 19, 20; 19: 3. 

The Bible story of King Saul's c 'seance' ' with 
the witch of Endor, a necromancer or spirit- medium, 
as related in 1 Sam. 28: 7-20, is an illustration of what 
is claimed to be performed to-day. Altho the law with 
reference to these mediums was very stridt and the pun- 
ishment death, there were some who were willing to 
risk their lives because of the gains which could thus 
be obtained from people who believed that they were 
obtaining supernatural information from their dead 
friends — just as with spirit-mediums to-day. King 
Saul was well aware that there were numerous of these 
mediums residing in Israel contrary to the divine in- 
junction and his own law, and his servants apparently 
had no difficulty in finding the one at Endor. Saul 
disguised himself for the interview, but no doubt the 
crafty woman knew well the stately form of Saul — head 
and shoulders taller than any other man in Israel. ( 1 
Sam. 9:2.) Hence her particularity to secure a promise 
and oath from his own lips that no harm should befall 
her for the service 

The methods used by the evil spirits through the 
medium at Endor were similar to those in use to-day. 
They caused to pass before the medium's mental vision 
the familiar likeness of the aged prophet, Samuel, 
wearing as was his custom, a long mantle. When she 
described the mental (or ' 'astral ?" ) pidlure, Saul recog- 
nized it at once as a description of Samuel; but Saul 



20 What Say the Scriptures? 

himself saw nothing — he \ 'perceived/ ' from the de- 
scription, that it was Samuel. Easily convinced, as 
people under such circumstances usually are, Saul did 
not stop to question how it could be that Samuel looked 
as old and as stooped as he looked in the present life, 
if he was now a spirit being and far better off; nor did 
he inquire why he wore the same old mantle in the 
spirit world that he had worn when he knew him as an 
earthly being. Saul had been forsaken by the Lord 
and was now easily deceived by these "lying spirits/ ' 
who personated the prophet and spoke to Saul in his 
name, through their "medium,' ' the witch, necroman- 
cer, Spiritist. 

The fallen spirits are not only well informed in re- 
spedl to all the affairs of earth, but they are adepts in 
deceit. In answering Saul, the manner and style, and 
as nearly as could be judged the sentiments of the 
dead prophet were assumed — the better to deceive. 
(Thus these "lying spirits' ' always seek to counterfeit 
the face manner and disposition of the dead. ) The 
response was, "Why hast thou disquieted me to bring 
me up?" This answer corresponds to the Jewish be- 
lief — that when a person died he became unconscious 
in "sheol," the grave, waiting for a resurrection. (Job 
14: 12-15, 21; Psa. 90:3; Eccl. 9:5,6.) Hence the rep- 
resentation is that Samuel was brought up from the 
grave, and not down from heaven; and that his rest or 
peaceful "sleep* ' was disturbed or "disquieted. ' ' — Psa. 
I3-3; Job 14: 12; Psa. 90:5; John 11:11, 14. 

Saul was easily deceived into thinking that the 
Prophet Samuel who had refused to visit him to have 
any further converse with him while alive, had been 
forced to commune with him, by the wonderful 



Spiritism — Demonism. 2 1 

powers of the witch. (See 1 Sam. 15:26, 35.) Saul's 
own testimony was, "God is departed from me and 
answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by 
dreams." — 1 Sam. 28:6, 15. 

Any rightly informed person will readily see the 
absurdity of supposing that Samuel would hold any 
conference whatever with Saul under the circumstance. 
( 1 ) Samuel (when living) was aware that God had for- 
saken Saul, and hence Samuel had no right to speak 
to him and no right to give him any information which 
the Lord was unwilling to give him. And Samuel 
would not do so. (2) It is thoroughly absurd to sup- 
pose that a spirit-medium under condemnation of the 
Lord and prohibited of the right of residence in the 
land of Israel could have the power at the instance of a 
wicked king, whom God had deserted, to ' 'disquiet* ' 
Samuel and to bring him "tip" out of sheol. Was 
Samuel down in the earth, or was he afar off in heav- 
en ? and had the witch the power in either case to com- 
mand him to present himself before King Saul to 
answer his question ? Or is it reasonable to suppose 
that any spirit- mediums have the power to "disquiet" 
and "bring up" or in any other manner cause the dead 
to appear to answer the speculative questions of the 
living? 

The "familiar spirit" of the witch, personating 
Samuel, foretold nothing which Saul himself did not 
anticipate. Saul knew that God's word had been passed 
that the kingdom should be taken from him and his 
family, and he had sought the witch because of his 
fear of the Philistine hosts in battle array for the mor- 
row. He expedled no mercy for himself and his fami- 
ly, God having told him that David would be his sue- 



22 What Say the Scriptures? 

cessor. He even anticipated, therefore, the statement 
which was the only feature connedled with this story 
that indicates in any degree a supernatural knowledge; 
viz., "To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: 
the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the 
hands of the Philistines. ' ' The well-informed demons 
knew full better than did Saul the strength of the 
Philistines' position and army, and the weakness of 
Saul's position and army, and that he himself was al- 
ready panic stricken and making this inquiry of the 
witch- medium because he was distradled at the situa- 
tion. Any one familiar with the warfare of that time 
would know (i) that one day's battle would probably 
settle the question; and (2) that the death of the king 
and his household would be the only logical result. 
Nevertheless, the "familiar spirit" erred, for two of 
Saul's sons escaped and lived for years. It is even de- 
nied by scholars that the battle and the death of Saul oc- 
curred for several days after the visit to the witch. 

It is not surprising that Satan and the fallen an- 
gels, his consorts in evil, should know considerably 
more than do men, concerning many of life's affairs. 
We must remember that by nature they are a higher, 
more intelligent order than men; for man was made "a 
little lower than the angels" (Psa. 8:5): besides, let 
us remember their thousands of years of experience, 
unimpaired by decay and death, as compared with 
man's "few years and full of trouble," soon cut off in 
death. Can we wonder that mankind cannot cope with 
the cunning of these "wicked spirits," and that our 
only safety lies in the divine provision that each one 
who so wills may refuse to have any communication 
with these demons? The Word of the Lord is, "Re- 



Spiritism — Demonism. 23 

sist the devil, and he will flee from you." (Jas. 4: 7.) 
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the 
devil, as a roaring [angry] lion, walketh about, seek- 
ing whom he may devour: whom resist, steadfast in the 
faith."— 1 Pet. 5:8, 9. 

But while able to tell things past and present \ these 
evil intelligences are quite unable to do more than guess 
at the future. Yet these guesses are often so skillfully 
stated as to satisfy the inquirer and yet appear true, if 
the result should be the opposite of his expectation. 
Thus the oracle of Delphi having been consulted by 
Croesus demonstrated to him a super-human knowledge 
of present things, and when he, having thus gained 
confidence in it, inquired through its mediums, 
" whet her he should lead an army against the Per- 
sians/ ' the answer as recorded by Herodotus the his- 
torian was, "By crossing the Halys, Crcesus will destroy 
a mighty power! " Relying upon this, Crcesus attacked 
the Persians and was defeated. His own mighty power 
was destroyed! History is full of such evidences that 
the demons know not the future; and God's Word 
challenges all such, saying, — 

"Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth 
your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them 
bring them forth and show us what shall happen. Let 
them show the former things [things before or to come] 
what they be, that we may consider them, and know 
the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. 
Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may 
know that ye are gods ■." — Isa. 41:21, 23. 

But where was Samuel the prophet, if Saul would 
be with him the day following? Clearly the meeting 
place would not be heaven, for wicked Saul was surely 



24 What Say the Scriptures? 

unfit to enter there (John 3: 5); nor could the meeting 
be in a place of flames and torment, for surely Samuel 
was not in such a place. No; the "familiar spirit* ' 
spoke to Saul from the standpoint of the general faith 
of that time, taught by Samuel and all the patriarchs 
and prophets, — namely, that all who die, good and bad 
alike, go to sheol> the grave, the state of death, the 
sleep from which naught can awaken except the resur- 
rection power of Michael, the arch- angel (Dan. 12: 1, 
2); — except it were claimed that the witch's * 'familiar 
spirit" could awaken the dead in advance, — but this, 
as we are showing, was a deception, a fraud, the "lying 
spirit" personating the dead and answering for Samuel. 
Of this passage Charles Wesley wrote — 

What do these solemn words portend ? 
A gleam of hope when life shall end ? — 
Thou and thy sons shall surely be 
To-morrow in repose with me: — 
Not in a state of hellish pain, 
If Saul with Samuel remain; 
Not in a state of damned despair, 
If loving Jonathan be there." 

One remarkable thing in connection with the mani- 
festations of these fallen angels, or ' 'demons/ ' is that 
people of ordinary common sense are so easily deceived 
by them and accept such flimsy proofs respecting the 
dead, which they would not accept respecting the liv- 
ing. The inquirer will accept through the medium a 
description which fits to the individual and his manner, 
clothing and appearance years before, and willhold sacred 
a message purporting to come from him, whereas the 
same individual would be more on guard against de- 
ception by a living impostor, and his message through 
a servant. 



Spiritism — Demonism . 2 5 

The mention in the Scriptures of these necroman- 
cers, witches and mediums, leads us to infer that 
through mediums they were for centuries seeking fel- 
lowship with the Israelites. But it is apparently the 
custom to change the manner of manifestation from 
time to time: just as witchcraft flourished for a time in 
New England and Ohio, and throughout Europe, and 
then died out and has been succeeded by Spiritism, 
whose tipping and rapping manifestations are gradual- 
ly giving way to others, clairaudience and materializa- 
tion being now the chief endeavors, the latter, being 
very difficult and the conditions often unfavorable, are 
often accompanied by mediumistic assistance and fraud. 

OBSESSION AT THE FIRST ADVENT. 



In the days of our Lord and the early Church the 
method of operations on the part of these demons had 
changed somewhat from the practices in the days of 
Saul, and we read nothing in the New Testament about 
witches, wizards and necromancy, but a great deal 
about persons possessed by devils — obsession. Appar- 
ently there were great numbers thus possessed through- 
out the land of Israel: many cases are mentioned in 
which our Lord cast out devils; and the power to cast 
them out was one of those conferred upon the twelve 
apostles, and afterward upon the seventy that were 
sent out. The same power was possessed and exer- 
cised by the Apostle Paul. — See Luke 9:1; 10:11; Adls 
13:8-11; 16: 18. 

Mary Magdelene, we remember, had been, pos- 
sessed of seven devils (Luke 8:2), and being set free 
from their control, she became a very loyal servant of 
the Lord, Another instance is mentioned in which a 



26 What Say the Scriptures? 

legion of spirits had taken possession of one man. (Luke 
8: 30; 4: 35, 36, 41.) No wonder that his poor brain, 
assaulted and operated upon by a legion of different 
minds, would be demented. This tendency of these 
fallen spirits to congregate in one person indicates the 
desire they have still to exercise the power originally 
given them; namely, the power to materialize as men. 
Deprived of this power they apparently have compara- 
tively rare opportunities of getting possession of human 
beings. Apparently the human will must consent before 
these evil spirits have power to take possession. But 
when they do take possession apparently the will power 
is so broken down, that the individual is almost help- 
less to resist their presence and further encroachment, 
even tho he so desires. Our Lord intimates such a 
condition (Matt. 12:43-45), suggesting that, even af- 
ter an evil spirit had been cast out and the heart swept 
and garnished, if it were still empty, there would 
be danger of the return of the evil spirit with others 
to re-possess themselves of the man; — hence the neces- 
sity for having Christ enthroned within, if we would 
be kept for the Master's use, and be used in his service. 

Apparently these evil spirits have not the power 
to impose themselves, even upon dumb animals, until 
granted some sort of permission; for, v/hen the * 'legion* ' 
was commanded to come out of the man whom they 
possessed, they requested as a privilege that they might 
have possession of the bodies of a herd of swine; and 
the swine being according to the law unclean to the 
Jew, and unlawful to eat, the Lord permitted them to 
have possession of them, doubtless foreseeing the re- 
sults, and with a view to giving us this very lesson. 

The same Apostle who speaks of these evil spirits 



Spiritism — Demonzsm. 1 7 

as "lying wonders" and "seducing spirits* ' (1 Tim. 4: 
1; 2 Thes. 2:9; compare Ezek. 13:6; 1 Kings 22:22, 
23) tells us that the heathen sacrificed to these demons. 
(1 Cor. 10: 20.) And so, indeed, we find that in vari- 
ous parts of the world there are demon manifestations. 
Amongst the Chinese these demon powers are fre- 
quently recognized, and sacrifices are offered to them; 
so also in India and in Africa. Amongst the North 
American Indians in their savage state these evil spirits 
operated after much the same manner as elsewhere. 
An illustration is given by Missionary Brainard in a 
* ' Report to the Honorable Society for Propagating Christ- 
ian Knowledge ', ' y explanatory of the difficulties and 
obstacles to the spread of Christianity among the In- 
dians with whom he had been laboring, as follows: — 

"What further contributes to their aversion to 
Christianity is the influence which their powaws {con- 
jurers or diviners) have upon them. These are a sort of 
persons who are supposed to have a power of foretelling 
future events, or recovering the sick, at least of ten times, 
and of charming, enchanting, or poisoning persons to 
death by their magic divinations. Their spirit, in its 
various operations, seems to be a Satanic imitation of 
the spirit of prophecy with which the Church in early 
ages was favored. Some of these diviners are endowed 
with the spirit in infancy; — others in adult age. It 
seems not to depend upon their own will, nor to be ac- 
quired by any endeavors of the person who is the sub- 
ject of it. . . . They are not under the influence of 
this spirit always alike, — but it comes upon them at 
times. Those who are endowed with it are accounted 
singularly favored. 

"I have labored to gain some acquaintance with 
this affair of their conjuration, and have for that end 
consulted and queried with the man mentioned in my 
Diary, May 9, who, since his conversion to Christian- 



28 What Say the Scriptures f 

ity, has endeavord to give me the best intelligence he 
could of this matter. But it seems to be such a myste- 
ry of iniquity, that I cannot well understand it, and do 
not know oftentimes what ideas to affix to the terms he 
makes use of. So far as I can learn, he himself has 
not any clear notions of the thing, now his spirit of di- 
vination is gone from him. 

1 'There were some times when this spirit came 
upon him in a special manner. Then, he says, he was 
all light, and not only light himself, but it was light 
all around him, so that he could see through men, and 
knew the thoughts of their hearts. These "depths oj 
Satan* 9 I leave to others to fathom or to dive into as 
they please, and do not pretend, for my own part, to 
know what ideas to affix to such terms, and cannot well 
guess what conception of things these creatures have 
at these times when they call themselves all light. But 
my interpreter tells me that he heard one of them tell 
a certain Indian the secret thoughts of his heart, which 
he had never divulged. . . . 

"When I have apprehended them afraid of em- 
bracing Christianity, lest they should be enchanted and 
poisoned, I have endeavored to relieve their minds of 
this fear, by asking them, Why their powaws did not 
enchant and poison me, seeing they had as much reason 
to hate me for preaching to them, and desiring them 
to become Christians, as they could have to hate them 
in case they should actually become such ? That they 
might have an evidence of the power and goodness of 
God engaged for the protection of Christians, I ven- 
tured to bid a challenge to all their powaws and great 
powers to do their worst on me first of all; and thus I 
labored to tread down their influence." — Memoirs of 
Brainard, pages 348-351. 

Three months since the New York Sun published 
the following account of the experiences of Capt. C. E. 
Denny, Indian agent for the Canadian Government 
among the Blackfeet Indians. Capt. Denny says : — 



Spiritism — Demonism. 29 

"On my arrival in the northwest territories with 
the northwest mounted police, in 1874, I was curious 
to find out how far these ' 4 medicine men' • carried their 
arts, and also what these arts consisted of I heard 
from Indians many tales of wonders done by them, but 
it was a long time before I got a chance to be present 
at one of these ceremonies. The Indians were reluc- 
tant to allow a white man to view any of their * 'medi- 
cine" ceremonies. As I got better acquainted with 
several tribes, particularly the Blackfeet, I had many 
chances to find out the truth regarding what I had 
heard of them, and I was truly astonished at what I 
saw at different times. Many of the medicine feats did 
not allow of any jugglery, the man being naked, with 
the exception of a cloth around his loins, and I sitting 
within a few feet of him. 

1 'All Indians believe in their familiar spirit \ which 
assumed all kinds of shapes, sometimes that of an owl, 
a buffalo, a beaver, a fox, or any other animal. This 
spirit it was that gave them the power to perform the 
wonders done by them, and was firmly believed in by 
them all. 

"On one occasion I was sitting in an Indian tent 
alone with one of the "medicine" men of the Blackfeet 
Indians. It was night and all was quiet in the camp. 
The night was calm, with a bright moon shining. On 
a sudden the Indian commenced to sing, and presently 
the lodge, which was a large one, commenced to tremble; 
and the trembling increased to such a degree that it 
rocked violently, even lifting off the ground, first on 
one side and then on the other, as if a dozen pair of 
hands were heaving it on the outside. This lasted for 
about two minutes, when I ran out, expedling to find 
some Indians on the outside who had played me a trick, 
but, to my astonishment, not a soul was in sight, and 
what still more bewildered me was to find on examina- 
tion that the lodge was firmly pegged down to the 
ground, it being impossible for any number of men to 
have moved and replaced the pegs in so short a time. 



30 What Say the Scriptures? 

I did not enter the lodge again that night, as the mat- 
ter looked, to say the least, uncanny. 

" On another occasion I visited a lodge where a 
'medicine smoke' ' was in progress. There were about a 
dozen Indians in the lodge. After the smoke was over, 
a large copper kettle, about two feet deep, and the 
same or a little more in diameter, was placed empty on 
the roaring fire in the middle of the lodge. The med- 
icine man who was stripped, with the exception of a 
cloth around his loins, was all this time singing a ' 'med- 
icine" in a low voice. 

"The pot after a short while became red-hot, and 
a pole being passed through the handle, it was lifted 
in this state off the fire and placed on the ground, so 
close to me that the heat was almost unbearable. On 
the pole being withdrawn the medicine man sprang to 
his feet and, still singing his song, stepped with both 
naked feet into the red-hot kettle and danced for at 
least three minutes in it, still singing to the accompan- 
iment of the Indian drums. I was so close, as I have 
before said, that the heat of the kettle was almost un- 
bearable, and I closely watched the performance, and 
saw this Indian dance for some minutes with his bare 
feet in it. On stepping out he seemed none the worse; 
but how he performed the adl was and is still a mys- 
tery to me." 

Similar feats are performed by the fetish men of 
India "under control;" and tests given by "spirit me- 
diums" "under control" sometimes include the hand- 
ling of fire, red hot glass, etc. , with bare hands with- 
out injury. God has protected his faithful in the flames 
(Dan. 3: 19-27), and it seems that he does not always 
hinder Satan's use of such power. 

Dr. Ashmore, of long experience as a missionary 
in China, says, — 

"I have no doubt that the Chinese hold direcft 
communications with the spirits of another world. They 



Spiritism — Demonism. 3 1 

never pretend that they are the spirits of their depart- 
ed friends. They get themselves in a certain state and 
seek to be possessed by these spirits. I have seen them 
in certain conditions invite the spirits to come and to 
inhabit them. Their eyes become frenzied, their fea- 
tures distorted, and they pour out speeches which are 
supposed to be the utterances of the spirits.' ' 

An old issue of Youth's Day Spring contains a 
letter from a missionary describing the condition of the 
Africans on the Gaboon river at the approach of death. 
He says, — 

"The room was filled with women who were 
weeping in the most piteous manner, and calling on 
the spirits of their fathers and others who were dead, 
and upon all spirits in whom they believed, Ologo, 
Njembi, Abambo, and Miwii, to save the man from 
death.' ' 

A Wesleyan missionary, Mr. White, says, — 

"There is a class of people in New Zealand called 
Eruku, or priests; these men pretend to have inter- 
course with departed spirits." 

No part of humanity has been exempted from the 
attacks of these demons, and their influence is always 
baneful. India is full of it. So generally accepted at 
one time was the belief in demon-possession, that the 
Roman Catholic Church, through her priests, regularly 
practiced "exorcism," or casting out of demons. 

The very earliest recorded spirit manifestation was 
in Eden, when Satan, desiring to tempt mother Eve, 
used or "obsessed" the serpent. Mother Eve claimed 
that she was deceived by the serpent's misrepresenta- 
tions. God allowed the claim as true, and sentenced 
the serpent, which there became the symbolic repre- 
sentative of Satan. As the father of lies he there took 
possession of a serpent to deceive Eve and lead her to 



32 What Say the Scriptures? 

disbelieve God's command by the false assurance, "Ye 
shall not surely die!' ' soever since, tho he has var- 
ied his methods and mediums, all of them are to de- 
ceive — to blind the minds of mankind, lest the glorious 
light of the goodness of God, as it shines in the face of 
Jesus Christ our Lord, should shine unto them. 

Thanks be to God for the promise that, in due 
time, the Kingdom of God shall be established in the 
earth, in the hands of our I^ord Jesus and his then com- 
pleted and glorified Church, and that one of the first 
works of that Kingdom, preparatory to its blessing 
"all the families of the earth," will be the binding of 
that Old Serpent, the Devil and Satan, that he may 
deceive the nations no more for the thousand years of 
Christ's reign; until all men shall be brought to a clear 
knowledge of the truth, and to a full opportunity to 
avail themselves of the gracious provisions of the New 
Covenant, sealed at Calvary with the precious blood 
of Christ. 

While the name Old Serpent includes Satan, "the 
prince of devils/ ' it is here evidently used as a syno 
nym for all the sinful agencies and powers which had 
their rise in him. It therefore includes the legions of 
"evil spirits/ ■ "familiar spirits/ ■ "seducing spirits." 

Spiritism, as a deceiving influence under the con- 
trol of Satan, is foretold by the Apostle Paul. After 
telling of the work of Satan in the great Apostacy of 
which Papacy is the head- center, the Man of Sin, the 
Mystery of Iniquity,* the Apostle draws his subjedl to 
a close by pointing out that Satan, toward the end of 
this age, will be granted special licence to deceive by 
peculiar arts, all who, having been highly favored with 

* bee Millennial Dawn, Vol. ii., cnaptcr 9, pages 267-366. 



Spiritism — Demonism. 33 

the Word of God, have failed to appreciate and use it. 
He says, — "For this cause God will send them strong 
delusion [a working deception], that they may believe 
a lie: that they may all be condemned, who believed 
not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness 
[dcdlrinal or pradtical] . " — 2 Thes. 2:11, 12. 

We shall not be at all surprised if some later mani- 
festations of the powers of darkness, transformed to 
appear as the angels of light and progress, shall be 
much more specious and delusive than anything yet 
attempted. We do well to remember the Apostle's 
Words, — ' 'We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but 
with princely powers of darkness, with the spiritual 
things of the evil one." — Eph. 6: 12. 

In 1842, six years before "modern Spiritism" be- 
gan to operate, Edward Bickersteth, a servant of God 
and student of his Word, wrote, — 

"Looking at the signs of the times, and the long 
neglecJt and unnatural denial of all angelic ministration 
or spiritual influence, and at the express predidlionsof 
false Christs, and false prophets, who shall show signs 
and wonders \ insomuch that if it were possible they should 
deceive the very ele^l, and that when men receive not the 
love of the truth that they might be saved ', for this cause 
God shall send them strong delusion, that they shall be- 
lieve a lie; I cannot but think there is a painful pros- 
pedl of a sudden recoii, and religious revulsion from 
the present unbelief and misbelief, to an unnatural and 
undistinguishing creduuty. ' ' 

Satan is the inspirer and supporter of every Anti- 
Christ; and as he led those who had pleasure in error 
rather than the truth to the organization of the great 
Anti- Christ, Papacy, symbolically the "beast" of Rev. 
13, and as he is now operating to produce a Protestant 
"image of the beast" with life, which will cooperate 
3 



34 What Say the Scriptures? 

with the chief Anti- Christ, so in combination with 
these will be the powers of darkness, the powers of the 
air, the lying and seducing spirits, operating in some 
manner or in a variety of ways, — Spiritism, Christian 
Science, Theosophy, Hypnotism, etc. 

1 'Rev. Father Coppens, M. D. [Roman Catholic] , 
Professor in Creighton University/' recently delivered 
a discourse on ' 'Borderland of Science, ' ' from which we 
extradt the following on the phenomena of Spiritism: — 

"What must we think of the nature of Spiritism, 
with its spirit rappings, table-turning, spirit appari- 
tions and so on ? Can the f adls, which are not impos- 
ture, but realities, be explained by the laws of nature, 
the powers of material agents and of men ? All that 
could possibly be done by the most skilled scientists, 
by the most determined materialists who believe neither 
in God nor in demon, as well as by the most conscien- 
tious Christians, has only served to demonstrate to per- 
fect evidence thatteffedts are produced which can no 
more be attributed to natural agency than speech and 
design can be attributed to a piece of wood. One prin- 
ciple of science throws much light on the nature of all 
those performances, namely, that every effedt must 
have a proportionate cause. When the effedt shows 
knowledge and design, the cause must be intelligent. 
Now many of these marvels evidently show knowledge 
and design, therefore the cause is certainly intelligent. 

i 'A table cannot understand and anwser questions; 
it cannot move at a person's bidding. A medium can- 
not speak in a language he has never learned, nor know 
the secret ailment of a patient far away, nor prescribe 
the proper remedies without knowledge of medicine. 
Therefore these effedls when they really exist, are due 
to intelligent agents, agents distindl from the persons 
visibly present, invisible agents therefore, spirits of 
another world. 

"Who are these agents? God and his good angels 



Spiritism — Demonism. 35 

cannot work upon these wretched marvels, the food of 
a morbid curiosity, nor could they put themselves at 
the disposal of pious men to be trotted out as monkeys 
on the stage. The spirits which are made to appear at 
the seances are degraded spirits. Spiritualists them- 
selves tell us they are lying spirits. Those lying spirits 
say they are the souls of the departed, but who can 
believe their testimony, if they are lying spirits as they 
are acknowledged to be ? This whole combination of 
imposture and superstition is simply the revival in a 
modern dress of a very ancient deception of mankind 
by playing on men's craving for the marvelous. Many 
imagine these are recent discoveries, peculiar to this 
age of progress. Why, this spirit-writing is and has 
been for centuries extensively pradliced in benighted 
pagan China, while even Africans and Hindoos are 
great adepts at table turning. It is simply the revival 
of ancient witchcraft, which Simon Magus practiced 
in St. Peter's time; which flourished in Ephesus while 
St. Paul was preaching the gospel there. It is more 
ancient still. These were the abominations for which 
God commissioned the Jews in Moses' time to exter- 
minate the Canaanites and the other inhabitants of the 
promised land." 

MODERN SPIRITISM AND ITS TENDENCIES. 



The claim of Spiritists is .that Spiritism is the new 
gospel which is shortly to revolutionize the world — so- 
cially, religiously, politically. But, as we have just 
seen, Spiritism, under various garbs, has long held 
possession of the world and borne bad fruit in every 
clime. It is nearly fifty years since the rapping and 
tipping manifestations first occurred, in Rochester, N. 
Y. (1848), and gave start to what is at present known 
in the United States as ' 'Spiritualism. ' ■ It began with 
strange noises in a ' 'haunted house" and first answered 



36 What Say the Scriptures t 

a little girl who addressed the unseen author of the 
noises as "Old Splithoof." It had a rapid run of pop- 
ularity, and judges, dodtors, lawyers and ministers and 
hundreds of thousands of others speedily became its 
votaries, until its friends and its enemies claimed that 
its adherents numbered over ten millions. Believing 
in the consciousness of the dead, ignorant of the Script- 
ure teachings on the subjedl of death and of their prohi- 
bition from holding communion with "mediums;" and 
very generally disbelieving in evil spirits, it is not sur- 
prising that intelligent men and women, having proved 
to their own satisfaction that supernatural powers were 
in their midst, as manifested by the rappings, tippings, 
slate- writings, answers to questions through mediums, 
clairvoyances, etc., should believe these invisible pow- 
ers, which desire to converse with them, to be what 
they profess, — their deceased friends. Even allowing 
that there are certain tricks of legerdemain, and cer- 
tain frauds along similar lines, we cannot wonder that 
intelligent people would believe their own senses in 
respedt to instances which they had personally investi- 
gated. 

As a result, for a time many of God's people were 
in great danger, because of their failure to take heed 
to the sure Word of God's testimony (the Bible) on 
this subjedt. Indeed, the personating spirits seem at 
first to have been very careful in all their references to 
the Bible, sometimes advising the religious ones who 
attended seances to do more reading of the Bible, more 
praying, etc. But this was only to allay their suspi- 
cions and fears and to get the in more fully under their 
influence. Gradually the teachings became more and 
more lax, and the student was given to understand 



Spiritism — Demonism. 37 

that the Bible was better than nothing to the unini- 
tiated world, but to those who had come to have inter- 
course with the spirits diredt, the Bible was useless, — 
and worse, a hindrance. 

Well has an able writer upon the subjedl said of 
Spiritism, — 

i 'A system which commences with light, inno- 
cent, trifling and frivolous performances and communi- 
cations, but which ends in leading its followers to deny 
11 the Lord that bought them," and to rejedt the 
Word of God which liveth and abideth forever, gives 
evidence that there may be a deep purpose under all 
its fantastic tricks; and that the craft of the Old Ser- 
pent, who is a liar from the beginning, may underlie 
those trifling and unimportant communications which, 
by stimulating curiosity and inspiring confidence, lull 
to slumber the suspicions of honest but undiscerning 
souls, until they are in the fatal coils of the Enemy of 
all righteousness. ' 9 

These demons who personate the dead, seeing that 
a new dispensation is opening, were prompt to apply 
their knowledge as far as possible to the advancement 
of their own cause, and freely declared a new dispen- 
sation at hand, and Spiritism the guiding angel which 
was to lead mankind safely into it; and they have not 
hesitated to declare that the new dispensation means 
the utter wreck of the present social order, and the es- 
tablishment of Spiritism as the new order. In some 
instances, where they thought it would serve their pur- 
pose, they have not hesitated to declare the second 
coming of Christ, and on one occasion at least it was 
distinctly stated that Christ had come a second time: 
and it was intimated that they were ready if any one 
chose to grant communication with Christ through the 
medium. 



tf What Say the Scriptures 9 

Many of God's people have been saved from being 
ensnared into this great evil, by what we might term 
their own spiritual sense , by which they discerned that 
there was something in connexion with Spiritism quite 
at variance with the spirit of our Lord and the senti- 
ments of his Word. We may safely conclude, how- 
ever, on the strength of the Lord's promise, that none 
of the fully consecrated — the (t ele6k n are suffered to 
be fully ensnared. — Matt. 24: 24. 

The strongly marked tendency of Spiritism toward 
free-loveism served to bring it into general disrepute 
amongst the pure minded, who concluded that, if the 
influence of the dead was properly represented in some 
living advocates of Spiritism, — then the social condi- 
tions beyond the vale of death must be much worse, 
much more impure, than they are in the present life, 
instead of much better, as these demon spirits claim. 

We could make voluminous quotations from Spir- 
itist writings, proving that it totally denies the Bible, 
and that it is in diredt opposition to its teachings; 
that it has denied the very existence of God, teaching 
instead merely a good principle ', and that every man is 
a god. It denies the atonement and the Lordship of 
Christ, while it claims that he was a spirit medium 
of low degree; and furthermore, abundant testimony 
could be quoted from prominent Spiritists proving 
that the tendencies of Spiritism are extremely demoral- 
izing. We will content ourselves with one. 

Here is the testimony of J. F. Whitney, editor of 
the Pathfinder (N '. Y.). Having been a warm and 
evidently an honest defender and advocate of Spiritism 
for a long time and well acquainted with its devotees, 
his is a testimony hard to impeach. He says: — 



Spiritism — Demonism. 39 

1 'Now, after a long and constant watchfulness, seeing 
for months and years its progress and its pradtical work- 
ings upon its devotees, its believers, and its mediums, 
we are compelled to speak our honest convidlion, which 
is, that the manifestations coming through the acknowl- 
edged mediums, who are designated as rapping, tip- 
ping, writing and entrance mediums, have a baneful 
influence upon believers , and create discord and confu- 
sion; that the generality of these teachings inculcate 
false ideas, approve of selfish individual adts, and en- 
dorse theories and principles which, when carrier! out, 
debase and make man little better than the brute. These 
are among the fruits of modern Spiritualism. . . . 

' 'Seeing, as we have, the gradual progress it makes 
with its believers, particularly its mediums, from lives 
of morality to those of sensuality and immorality ', grad- 
ually and cautiously undermining the foundation of 
good principles, we look back with amazement to the 
radical change which a few months will bring about 
in individuals; for its tendency is to approve and en- 
dorse each individual adl and character, however good 
or bad these adls may be." 

He concludes by saying — ' 'We desire to send forth 
our warning voice, and if our humble position, as the 
head of a public journal, our known [former] advoca- 
cy of Spiritualism, our experience, and the conspicu- 
ous part we have played among its believers, the hon- 
esty and fearlessness with which we have defended the 
subjedl, will weigh anything in our favor, we desire 
that our opinions may be received, and those who are 
moving passively down the rushing rapids to destruc- 
tion, should pause, ere it be too late, and save them- 
selves from the blasting influence which those mani- 
festations are causing. " 

So bold and outspokenly immoral did some of the 
prominent representatives of Spiritism become, spe- 
cially the female mediums (and most of its mediums 
are females) that the moral sense of civilization was 



40 What Say the Scriptures f 

shocked; and for a time demonism under the name of 
' 'Spiritualism' ' languished. Now that its past is meas- 
urably forgotten or denied, it is reviving, but along 
somewhat different lines. The new method seems to 
be to have less tipping and rapping and fewer special 
mediums, or rather to make of each believer a medium, 
by the use of mechanical appliances. Indeed, almost 
all who become investigators are assured that they 
would make excellent mediums: this flattery is no 
doubt intended to lure them on; the ability to do ' 'won- 
ders' ' having a great fascination, especially for people 
of naturally mediocre talents. Nor is the statement 
untrue: none but idiots are so stupid or so ignorant 
that they cannot be used as mediums; and they may be- 
come powerful mediums in proportion as they yield 
themselves obediently to the "control' ' of these "se- 
ducing spirits" and their "dodtrines of devils (See i 
Tim. 4: i) and are "led captive" by Satan at his will. 
— 2 Tim. 2:26. 

The term "seducing spirits" exactly fits the case. 
From amusement of curiosity and answering of ques- 
tions, sometimes quite truthfully, they proceed to gain 
the confidence of their vidlims, and in a plausible man- 
ner to break down the will power and make slaves of 
them. Then they tyrannize in a most diabolical man- 
ner, leading into excesses of various kinds. Should 
conscience rebel or an attempt be made togetfreefiom 
this slavery, all reserve is cast aside and the vidlim is 
taunted with his fall, persuaded that there is no hope 
for him, and that his only future pleasure must be in 
diabolism — Scriptures being skillfully quoted and cited 
to apparently prove this. 

A case of this kind came under the writer's ob- 



Spiritism — Demonism. 41 

servation in 1895. A gentleman who had occasionally 
attended on preaching asked that an interview be grant- 
ed his sister whom he would bring from Cleveland for 
the purpose. She was, he said, laboring under the de- 
lusion that she had committed the unpardonable sin, 
and he hoped we could disabuse her mind of the 
thought which sometimes made her "wild." We con- 
sented, and she came. She conversed rationally enough 
but assured us that her case was hopeless. We explained 
the Scriptures relating to the "Sin unto death" and 
endeavored to show her that she had never had suffi- 
cient light to come under its conditions, but we could 
make no headway. She declared that she had been in 
a salvable condition once, but was so no longer. 

She told us how she had met in California a man 
who had a familiar spirit and occult powers: at first 
disbelieving, she afterward became his co-worker in 
"mysteries" resembling witchcraft, and had finally 
inveigled and injured a dear female friend. Since then 
remorse had siezed her, and she had been tortured and 
at times frenzied and hope had forever fled. Before 
she left us she seemed comforted a little by what we 
told her of divine compassion and the abundant provi- 
sion made in the great ransom for all given at Calvary. 
But we have heard since that she lost hope again and 
has been placed in an asylum to hinder her from tak- 
ing her own life. She could not be trusted alone: she 
would attempt to throw herself headlong from a win- 
dow, or while quietly walking the street would attempt 
to throw herself under passing vehicles; — reminding us 
of the case mentioned in Mark 9: 22. We have re- 
gretted, since, that instead of merely reasoning with 
the poor woman we did not, also, in the name of the 



42 What Say the Scriptures? 

Lord, exorcise the evil spirit which evidently possessed 
her; or, failing to cast it out, at least have instructed 
and helped her to exercise her will power to resist the 
demon. 

There are good spirits, as the Scriptures freely 
declare; and these holy angels are charged with the 
care of all who are fully consecrated to the Lord. 
These, however, do not operate in darkness, nor through 
"mediums," and have better employment than tipping 
tables, rapping out answers to foolish questions and 
entertaining humanity. * 'Are they not all ministering 
spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be 
heirs of salvation? " (Heb. i: 14.) There is no war- 
rant, however, for seeking or expedling communica- 
tions from these holy guardian angels: God's will be- 
ing that his "eledt" shall walk by faith and not by 
unusual manifestations or sights or sounds. To this 
end he has prepared his Word as a storehouse of knowl- 
edge from which his faithful shall be supplied with 
"meat in due season:" and he declares it to be svffi- 
cient that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished 
unto every good work. — 2 Tim. 3: 17. 

Furthermore, it may be set down as a sure sign of 
evil (either germinating or developed), for any one to 
attempt to get control of the will and mind of another 
— as in mesmerism, spirit- mediumship, hypnotism and 
the like. The Lord respedls our individuality and ap- 
peals to it, and urges our self- control in harmony with 
the principles of righteousness laid down in his Word. 
But Spiritism asks an abandonment of self- control 
in favor of spirit control. No one of ordinary prudence 
would dare to give up the use and control of his mind 
and will to fellow men, much less to unseen powers 



Spiritism — Demonism. 43 

which merely prof ess to be good and great and wise. 
No Christian who has the slightest confidence in the 
Bible as the inspired Word of God should submit him- 
self to these influences as a "medium," or even become 
an ' investigator' ' of that concerning which God's Word 
has given us so explicit warnings — that it is a way 
that leads from God and righteousness to sin, and ruin, 
mental, moral and physical. 

One of the simple modern devices for awakening 
interest and leading on to fuller "mediumship," ' 'pos- 
session' ' and "control," is described in a letter just re- 
ceived, dated March 11, '97, from a Christian lady, a 
school teacher in Georgia, and a deeply interested stu- 
dent of God's plan of the ages. The writer says: — 

U I have been having a rather strange and perhaps 
unwise experience lately. My husband's brother is a 
Spiritualist, takes the Progressive (?) Thinker and is 
thoroughly imbued with its teachings, and, when I visit 
there, he reads articles from it and askes my opinion 
concerning them; especially those from persons claim- 
ing to have received messages from 'departed friends' 
through the aid of the mediums. Now I never have 
thought it 'all humbug' as many do, tho there is much 
fraud connected with it — for it seems to me that the 
Bible plainly teaches that spirits have had, and will 
have, the power to communicate with men. I have 
told him that I believed those communications came 
from fallen angels who personated the dead for the 
purpose of deceiving men into believing Satan's ola 
lie, "Thou shalt not surely die." But as my brother- 
inlaw does not accept the Bible as the Word of God, 
my opinion had little weight with him. His wife (who 
is a firm believer in Dawn) is much troubled over his 
belief; and both have found their difference of opinion 
any thing but pleasant, tho his wife avoids the subjedl 
as much as possible with fidelity to the truth. Some 



44 What Say the Scriptures? 

time ago he bought a Psycograph, an instrument used 
by mediums for communing with spirits, but he could 
not use it. 

"A few days ago it was placed in my hands, and, as 
I found I was a medium, I resolved to * 'try the spirits. ' ' 
[This is a misapplication of Scripture, as shown later. 
Editor.] About the first thing it said to me was that 
there is a valuable gold mine on our place: that did 
not surprise me, as we had been told that a "vein" had 
been traced across the place. It described the exadt 
location to dig for it; said it is only 7^ feet below the 
surface. So that will not be difficult to prove. Then 
it gave me some Scripture messages, Col. 1:4, 5 and 
2:4. I asked what was meant by "enticing words" 
and was answered, Bellamy, Christian Science, Spirit- 
ualism, Ingersolism, etc. I asked who was talking, 
and was told Epaphras. That did not seem to please 
my brother-in-law very much, and he said he would 
like to hear from some one we had known in the flesh, 
so I asked if such an one were present, and was told, 
"Yes, Eastman" (a stranger to me, but my brother-in- 
law and his wife, who alone were present, were both 
acquainted with him). When asked what he wished 
to say he cited us to Titus 3:5, said Millennial Dawn 
dodlrine is true, and that his wealth had hindered him 
from gaining the prize of the high calling. I, said 
Eastman, was not thought a very good Christian, tho 
a member of the church. 

"The next day I tried the wheel or Psychograph 
again, and was told that a dear good friend of mine 
who had lived in speaking distance of me for several 
years was talking to me. She asked me to write to her 
husband and tell him, that she said, a certain boy (giv- 
ing name) was having a bad influence over their boy. 
She told me that my husband (who is in Florida) was 
hurt and was very lame, and I got a letter from him 
day before yesterday confirming it. She said she re- 
gretted that she had not given Dawn the attention 
that I had wished her to, that she had life on the an- 



Spiritism — Demonism. 45 

gelic plane; she also told me of the "mine." I asked 
did she know the one claiming to be Eastman, and she 
said yes, that it was a deceiving spirit personating him, 
and that I would best not make use of the means through 
which I could receive such communications. One 
claiming to be Cephas cited me to the first chapter of 
Daniel. Another, claiming to be my father, said in 
substance the same. All said the same about the gold 
"mine," and all professed to believe in Christ and that 
Dawn is a corredt exponent of God's Word, and told 
me that I was failing to make the best use of one of 
my "gifts'* — teaching; that I should teach publicly as 
well as individuals, but was cautioned with 1 Cor. 3: 
7 and Eph. 4: 2. 

44 During the little time I experimented with the in- 
strument I was told many things (a few of which were 
not true) that would take too much of your time to 
tell you; and several of the "spirits claimed that they 
would heal the sick through me, if I would only trust 
them. A great deal of Scripture was given, and all 
very appropriate to those for whom it was given; but 
the Devil quoted Scripture to Christ; and I still think 
the same as I did before "trying the spirits,' ' — only I 
was not sure that fallen angels would admit, even for 
the purpose of deceiving, that Christ had "come in the 
flesh;" but it seems now they will. Probably 1 John 4: 
1-3 refers tododlrinesof men wholly. Of course, itwould 
be possible for those who shall have * 'part in the first 
resurrection" to speak through such a device, but is it 
probable that they will ? I will be glad to hear from 
you on this subjedl. 

[That passage has reference to men, — dodlrines 
among men. It may be remarked here that the evil 
spirits not only have knowledge of present events, but, 
by some power can frequently closely approximate the 
future. In one instance under our notice two deaths 
within a year were foretold: one of the parties died, the 
other became seriously ill, but recovered. Some power 



46 What Say the Scriptures $ 

is in Satan's hand, but with limitations. Compare 
Heb. 2:14; Psa. 97:10; 116: 15 and Job 2:3-6.— Editor.] 

"What experience I have had tends to confirm 
your teaching — that the communications are from the 
fallen angels. They are very unreliable. One can but 
feel how impossible it will be in these closing days of 
the Gospel age for any one to "stand" who has not a 
firm foundation for faith." . 

Here is an illustration of the insidious methods of 
these demons. Like Satan and the evil spirits of our 
Lord's day, they will confess Christ and the truth. 
Similarly, the woman "possessed" followed Paul and 
Silas several days saying truly ( Adls 16: 16-18 ), 
"These men are the servants of the most high God, 
which show 7 unto us the way of salvation." But for 
that matter, abundant evidence could be adduced that 
they would confirm and approve almost any dodlrine 
or theory held precious by the inquirer in order to gain 
his confidence, and thus a fuller power over him. 

Respecting the "mine," — that is a bait to draw 
and hold the interest. It is questionable whether the 
fallen angels can see deeper into the earth than can 
mankind. Of course, it might happen that the gold in 
paying quantities might be found on any of the gold- 
bearing veins of Georgia, but the experiences of min- 
ers in general and of drillers for petroleum who have 
been 'directed by spirits," or who have used "divin- 
ing rods," has been that, in the end, they lost money 
by following such directions. The presumption must 
therefore be that, if the * 'lying spirits" are not deceiv- 
ing by misrepresenting themselves as possessing knowl- 
edge when they have none, then the same malevolence 
which leads them as "seducing spirits" to lure man- 



Spiritism — Demonism. 47 

kind to moral and mental wreck, leads them to take 
pleasure in misleading them to financial wreck. Ly- 
ing spirits, like lying men, are not to be believed or 
trusted under any circumstances. 

Concerning the advice to "teach": coming from 
such a quarter, it should rather incline us to fear that 
the demons saw in the Sister a weakness in that direc- 
tion from which she would be most easily assailable. 
It is safe to conclude in advance that their advice is 
either diredlly or indiredlly intended to do us harm. 
And notice the cunning which sought to guard against 
suspicion by quoting texts cautioning to humility! 

True, the people need instruction, and all in- 
structors are "teachers; but it is very unsafe for 
anyone to think of himself or herself as a teacher. 
The preferable plan, by far, is for each to be a pupil 
in the school of Christ the great Teacher; and to be 
ready to learn of him through any channel, or to be used 
by him in helping to make plain to others his teach- 
ings. Each one who learns anything of the Lord 
should tell it to others, not as his own wisdom and 
teaching, but the Lord's, and himself merely the chan- 
nel which gladly passes the water of life on to others. 
No wonder the holy spirit cautions us, "Be not many 
of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we [teach- 
ers] shall have the greater judgment [or severer 
trial].' ' — James 3: 1. 

With the thought of teaching others is closely as- 
sociated the thought of superior wisdom; and from the 
first this has been Satan's bait. To mother Eve his 
promise as the reward of disobedience was, "Ye shall 
be [wise] as gods." And the temptation to her was 
that she perceived from his arguments that the forbid- 



48 What Say the Scriptures? 

den fruit was desirable "to make one wise." Alas, the 
wisdom which Satan gives is very undesirable. It is 
"[1] earthly, [2] sensual, [3] devilish;* ■ as many, too 
late, have discovered. But on the contrary, "the wis- 
dom which cometh down from above is first pure, then 
[2] peaceable, [3] gentle, [4] easy to be entreated, 
[5] full of mercy and good fruits, [6] without partial- 
ity and without hypocrisy." (Jas. 3: 15-17.) No won- 
der the inspired Apostle said, "I fear lest by any means 
as the serpent beguiled Eve, by subtilty [cunning] , so 
your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity 
[purity] that is in Christ:' ' (2 Cor. 11:3.) Let us 
therefore lose no opportunity for telling the "good tid- 
ings of great joy;" — but let us lose sight of ourselves as 
teachers and point all, as brethren and fellow-pilgrims, 
to the words and example of the great Teacher and of 
the twelve inspired apostles whom he appointed as our 
instructors, our teachers. 

We advised the Sister further, that it was very 
unwise to disobey the divine instructions (Isa. 8: 19, 
20) by having anything whatever to do with these "se- 
ducing spirits. ' ' These are not the spirits which we 
are to "try" "whether they be of God," for God has 
already forewarned us that they are not of him y but that 
they are "wicked spirits.' ■ As well might we use the 
Apostle's words as an excuse for trying all the various 
brands of intoxicating spirits to see if one could be 
found which would not make drunk. These "famil- 
iar/ ' wicked spirits claim, that they are numerous, a 
"legion" possessing one man: they would ask no more 
than that humanity should ' { try" ' them all. A fair trial or 
' 'test' ' is just what they request and they succeed sooner 
or later in enslaving most of those who test them. 



Spiritism — Demonism, 49 

In the passage which says, "Beloved, believe not 
every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God' ' 
(1 John 4: 1-6), the word spirits is used in the sense 
of teaching or dodlrine and has no reference to spirit 
beings. This is shown by the verses following, which 
declare that we are to "try" or discern between "the 
spirit of truth and the spirit of error." And this may 
be quickly done, for all false dodlrines either diredlly 
or indiredlly deny that ' 'Christ dkd /or our sins;" that 
''the man Christ Jesus gave himself a ransom for all." 

Assuredly we should not expedl that the Lord, 
nor any in harmony with him, will ever make use of 
methods which the "lying spirits" use and which God 
in his Word has condemned and forbidden. To do so 
would expose God's people to all the "wiles of the 
devil." 

The Sister sent us an advertisement of the Psycho- 
graph which says, — 

"Do you wish to investigate Spiritualism? Do 
you wish to develop Mediumship ? Do you desire to 
receive communications ? The psychograph is an in- 
valuable assistant. Many, who were not aware of their 
mediumistic gift, have, after a few sittings, been able 
to receive delightful messages. Many, who began 
with it as an amusing toy, found that the intelligence 
controlling it knew more than themselves, and became 
converts to Spiritualism." 

Thus does Satan now make use of the belief com- 
mon to all denominations of Christians as well as heath- 
endom, that the dead are not dead but are angels hov- 
ering round us; and what is more calculated to "se- 
duce" them than just such a toy? 

By the same mail came the samples of The Pro- 
gressive Thinker, — a Spiritualist organ of the most pro- 
4 



50 What Say the Scriptures? 

nounced type. We examined it, having in view matter 
for this article, and to our surprise found that several 
of its leading articles freely conceded that the vast 
majority of the communicating spirits are evil spirits 
which seek influence over human beings in order to 
work their ruin: and if possible to get possession of 
them to make them crazy. It told of written commun- 
ications dropped into a room signed " Beelzebub* ■ and 
1 'Devil.' ' In one column under the caption "A Crit- 
ical Study of Obsession/' was an account of a poor 
woman who had been so beset by evil spirits that she 
was sent to an Insane Asylum and who finally got rid 
of their torments; and it gives her statement, ■ 'I prayed 
them away." Asked, "To whom did you pray?" her 
recorded answer is, "To the Ever- living God. He on- 
ly can answer prayer." And yet in another column 
God's name is blasphemed, under the caption, "Peter 
and Paul, ' ' from which we quote these words — ' 'Moses, 
who tho said to be learned in all the Egyptian skill, 
was the very meanest of men, and for his God errone- 
ously took Jehovah, a departed spirit of an Egyptian 
disappointed aspirant to some lucrative or ecclesiasti- 
cal office." 

In the same issue (April 3, '97), under the head- 
ing — ' 'Thoughts Illustrating the Status of Spiritualism, 
and the Dangers that Beset the Honest Investigator," 
by Charles Dawbran, we have a notice of a book by an 
English Clergyman, entitled "The Great Secret or the 
Modern Mystery of Spiritualism." Introducing the 
author the article says: — 

"His experiences commenced with the develop- 
ment of his wife as a wiiting medium, through whom, 
from time to time, he received such tests as delight the 



Spiritism — Demonism. 5 1 

heart of the worshiper of phenomena. He also seems 
to have made the acquaintance of almost every public 
medium who has at any time been high priest or priest- 
ess of the Occult, to the worthy citizens of London. 
And he has apparently been a welcomed visitor to the 
homes and seances of every distinguished investigator 
or full- fledged believer in that city during the forty 
years of which he writes. He has included hypnotism 
in his investigations, and has been successful both as 
operator and subjedl. He has even dabbled a little in 
* Black Magic,' at least sufficient to prove it a dread 
reality. So we have in this author a man most un- 
usually qualified to deal intelligently with the subjedl. 
That he is now, and has for almost all these years been 
a believer is evident, for he narrates incidents and 
proofs which would carry conviction to every intelli- 
gent and unprejudiced mind. But his trouble has been 
that of every experienced investigator. He has not 
only witnessed much phenomena that could be ex- 
plained as due to the normal or abnormal powers of the 
mortal, but where there has been an evident 'ghost* 
at work, mistakes, and at times evident fraud, have 
troubled his ecclesiastical soul. 

"So we have little but the usual mixed experiences 
of the average intelligent investigator. A grain of 
wheat to a bushel of chaff is claimed by the Spiritualist 
as abundant compensation for the toil and trouble of 
long years of waiting upon the ' dear spirits.' And to 
some minds perhaps it is. But to others there have ever 
been fierce attempts to increase the crop of truth. And 
it is herein that the experiences of this clergyman be- 
come interesting to every truth-lover the world over. 
He, as we have said, has had abundant experience in 
both public and private seances, but his pathway to 
progress seemed blocked. He was just as liable to the 
usual imperfections of spirit intercourse after many years 
of such investigation , as in the very first sittings with his 
own wife and a few chosen friends. 

"So the question became: ' Is progress possible ?' 



52 What Say the Scriptures ? 

And to solve this he tried an experiment which in- 
spires the present writer to call this attention to his 
book. For as we have seen, the rest was what almost 
everybody can endorse, and say ' me too.' He deter- 
mined to seek spirit intercourse from the highest plane 
possible to the mortal, so that if there be truih to the 
maxim 'like to like* he might attract the very highest, 
and repel those who come from the unseen to trouble 
and perplex weary mortals. He devoted a house to 
that purpose. Not merely were there rooms for use 
by mediums and circles of investigators or believers, 
but a chapel was prepared where he himself conducted 
a religious service twice a week, and it was at the con- 
clusion of this service that a special seance was held by 
the believers present. The surroundings were most 
solemn. Frivolity was conspicuous only by its ab- 
sence. The spirits had promised great results. For 
over a year at one time, and for months at others, these 
meetings were continued. But no promise was fulnid. 
Prayers to God for light and truth proved no more ef- 
ficacious than the eternal 'Nearer my God to thee' of 
the usual public seance, with its miscellaneous crowd. 
1 ' So our poor clergyman has his one grain of wheat 
after forty years of honest attempt to make at least a 
pint of it. He clings to that atom of truth with his 
whole soul, but his earnest attempt at progress has 
proved a life-long failure, altho, apparently, every con- 
dition was favorable to success. Since such is the ex- 
perience of the thousands, once zealous, who have be- 
come * silent 9 believers from the same cause, we may 
well ask: Is modern Spiritualism fixed and bounded 
like the theological systems of the past and present ? 
Is there no hope of solving its problems, overcoming 
its barriers, and reaching a higher manhood on this 
side of the life line ? Is the honest and convinced in- 
vestigator presently to become discouraged, almost as 
a matter of course ? ' 

The claim made by Spiritists is that good spirits 
commune with good people, and evil spirits with evil 



Spiritism — Demonism. 53 

people is thus disproved. Could stronger testimony 
than this be produced in evidence that all spirit com- 
munications are from evil spirits and are wholly unre- 
liable? Tlie writer, further on in the same Spiritist 
journal, gives the following account of the experiences 
of another u believer/' for which he vouches : — 

" For a score of years he had been true to his con- 
victions, endeavoring to reduce all belief to a basis of 
provable fads. His own sensitiveness permitted spirit 
approach, and sometimes the heavens had seemed to 
open to shower blessings on his soul. But foes came 
as readily as friends whenever the gate was ajar, so 
that, for the most part, safety compelled him to avoid 
personal experience of spirit return. The adlive mind 
offers poor foothold to any spirit, so he accepted public 
office a^d labored zealously for the public weal. But 
at intervals the experiences reappeared, and it seemed 
as if the battle had to be fought all over again. He 
failed to find a diredl cause which might account for 
the presence of his foes. But they seemed to have 
certain gathering points. For instance, he could rarely 
visit a public library to seledt a book but that he would 
be followed and annoyed for hours by some * 'invisible, ' ' 
seeking to control him. It is true, each battle, when 
fought to vidlory, was usually followed by a brief and 
happy re-union with angel friends, but the sense of 
danger made him only the more earnest to close the 
door to all spirit return. His method of fighting off 
the influence was to resolutely fix his mind on some 
matter of interest in his daily affairs. And this would, 
sooner or later, prove successful every time. Any at- 
tempt to gain help from the spirit side of life only 
seemed to give added power to the foe." 

This man had evidently progressed in Spiritism so 
that he had become a " clairaudient medium." The 
supposed good spirits or "angel friends' ' which some- 
times visited him were merely the same evil spirits 



54 What Say the Scriptures? 

called by the writer ' *f oes ;■ ' but they transformed them- 
selves to his mind by assuming an opposite attitude 
when they found him getting away from their influ- 
ence ; — to keep him from abandoning them altogether, 
and in hope that by and by they would get such an in- 
fluence over him that escape would be impossible. 

From the same journal, under the heading, " In- 
cidents With Good Advice," after giving two cases 
of pronounced insanity, the diredl result of " spirit 
control/' we find the following advice: — 

" The lesson I would draw is this: Never sit alone, 
if there is the least probability of the controls over- 
coming one's judgment. Even though their intentions 
may be good, as in Mr. B.'s case; yet their experience 
has been insufficient with regard to the management 
of mediums, and their operations may become very in- 
judicious. Never permit a control to cause you to do 
that which your judgment cannot sandtion, no matter 
under what promise it is given. Only evil designing 
controls are liable to resort to such measures. 

" These cases call to mind the thought that un- 
doubtedly there are many others in the asylums, who 
are simply the vidtims of control. I could cite another 
case, where during her first confinement, a young 
woman was given chloroform and other treatment which 
weakened her system to such an extent that a degraded 
spirit took hold of her organism, and the language he 
made that previously moral girl use, was deplorable. 
Under these conditions she was committed to the asy- 
lum, where she is at present and at last reports was, at 
times, able to control her body, and, of course, at those 
times she was considered 'rational' by the authorities. 

11 Let all Spiritualists be sure to caution persons 
who are beginning their investigation by sitting alone 
to be very careful — and to make a regular pradice of 
reporting, so that those of experience may know what 
is taking place and advise accordingly. And further, 



Spiritism — Demonism. 55 

let us make a pradtice of looking into all cases of so- 
sailed ' insanity ' before they are sent to the asylums; 
perchance it may be a case like those I have cited.' ' 

A "strong delusion/' an ' 'energy of Satan" truly 
Spiritism is, when people with all these evidences be- 
fore them still return to it time and again, even after 
being injured, — as do the once singed summer moths 
to the deadly glare that fascinates them. There is a 
dense darkness in the world to-day upon divine truth; 
and thinking people, when awakened from the stupor 
which has so long benumbed their reasoning faculties, 
as respedts religion, cry out for " Light, more Light;" 
and if they do not get the true Light of the knowledge 
of God (which shines only for the honest and conse- 
crated believer in the ransom), they are ready for the 
false lights with which "the god of this world," Satan, 
seeks to ensnare all — Higher Criticism otherwise called 
Agnosticism, or Spiritism, or Christian Science, or 
Th<feosophy. These, if it were possible, would deceive 
the very eledt; and are well represented as being Satan's 
ministers transformed as angels of light. 

Another popular Spiritualist paper is The Philosoph- 
ical Journal. It continually urges that its gospel of 
Spiritism be tested, and declares it to be the one thing 
the world needs; and yet it also admits the frauds prac- 
ticed by the "spirits" upon mediums. It will admit 
that when detedled as " evil spirits," "lying spirits," 
by misrepresentation, fraud, wicked suggestions or 
works, arousing the vidlim to resistance or relief through 
prayer, evidently the same spirits return as moralists^ 
with reproofs, professions of sympathy and promises 
of aid in resisting the evil spirits, etc. , only to improve 
the first opportunity of weakness or temptation to break 



56 What Say the Scriptures? 

down all resistance of the will and obtain complete pos- 
session — obsession. We clip a statement in support of 
this from its issue of April 22, '97, signed by A. N. 
Waterman, one of the leading Spiritualist lights. Under 
the caption, " Real Authorship of Spirit Communica- 
tions/ * he says: — 

" It appears to me impossible that in this life we 
can know from whom a spiritual communication from 
the other world is made. We can have evidence, some- 
thing like that which we possess in reference to the 
authorship of a telegram, but no more. ,, 

Would people of " sound mind" stake their all, 
risk an insanity which according to their own accounts 
is manifold worse in torture than ordinary dementia, 
and spend their lives trying to get other people to risk 
their alls similarly, when for it all they have no more 
evidence than goes with a telegram ? Would they do so 
when the bitter experiences of forty years testing had 
told them that the genuine are at most only as * ' one 
grain to a bushel," as one of them has just told us? 

No, no ; only desperately deluded people would 
pursue such a course. Evidently as the holy spirit in 
men produces " the spirit of a sound mind " (2 Tim. 
1:7; Prov. 2: 6,7), so, on the other hand, the spirit of 
devils produces the spirit of an unsound mind. 

Another letter received recently from Florida, 
from a brother in Christ, a Watch Tower reader, well 
educated in several languages, informs us concerning 
some peculiar experiences recently had with these "se- 
ducing spirits. ' ' He became aware of the presence of 
invisible spirit beings, and they seemed to manifest a 
curious interest in his work: he was translating Mii> 
lenniai. Dawn into a foreign language. 



Spiritism — Demonism. 57 

Well informed along the Scriptural lines presented 
foregoing, as to who these " seducing spirits' ' are, he 
nevertheless forgot, or failed to heed the divine in- 
struction, — that mankind should hold no communication 
whatever with these " lying spirits " and "have no fel- 
lowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. ' ' The 
neglett of this instruction caused him serious trouble ; 
and but for the interposition of divine mercy, in re- 
sponse to his and our prayers, it might have made 
shipwreck of him — soul and body. 

He was allured to the conference by a mixture of 
curiosity with a benevolent desire to do them good by 
preaching to them the glorious gospel of divine love and 
mercy operating through Christ toward all mankind ; 
and the eventual hope of a judgment (probationary 
trial) for the fallen angels, declared in the Scriptures. 
(1 Cor. 6:3.) At first they gave close attention and 
appeared to take a deep and reverent interest in the 
message; but before long they became very "familiar" 
spirits, intruding themselves and their questions and 
remarks at all times and places, disputing with him 
and with each other in a manner and upon topics far 
from edifying, so that he remonstrated: finally he de- 
manded that they depart, but having gained his "inner 
ear" (having made of him what Spiritists would term 
a ' ' clairaudient medium' ' ) they were not disposed to go, 
and only through earnest prayer was he finally deliv- 
ered. He should have been on his guard against their 
sedudtive influences; he should have remembered that 
whatever message of grace the Iyord may yet have for 
these fallen angels he has not yet sent it to them, and 
that none are authorized to speak for the Lord without 
authority. "How shall they preach except they be 



58 What Say the Scriptures? 

sent?" The message of salvation thus far is to man- 
kind only ; and even here it is limited, for altho all 
are to be counseled to repent of sin and to reform, yet 
the gospel of salvation is restricted to repentant \ ' be- 
lievers " only, — " the meek of the earth. 

WARNINGS FROM A SPIRITIST AND SWEDENBORGIAN. 



Joseph Hartman has published a book of 378 pages 
in which he recounts his experiences as a Spirit- medi- 
um (led into it by Swedenborg's teachings), his de- 
basement almost to the loss of reason by spirit obses- 
sion, and his final recovery from its ensnarement of 
his will; but strange to say, he is still a firm believer 
in Swedenborgianism and Spiritism, altho, like others, 
he cautions every one to be on guard against their 
wicked devices. Poor deluded man, he still believes 
that these are good spirits. 

Mr. H. had come in contadl with the ' Tlanchette, ' ■ 
a wooden device which holds a pencil and moves readily 
under the hands of certain mediums or " sensitives/ ' 
even children, writing answers to questions propounded 
to it ; and he had attended several tipping and rapping 
seances, and was convinced that they were not frauds, 
but the operations of invisible, intelligent spirits. He 
became actively interested while endeavoring to con- 
vince doubting friends cf the genuineness of the manifes- 
tations. Next he tried it in his own family and devel- 
oped the fact that his little son was a drawing and 
writing medium. Next he was curious to investigate 
the phenomena of spirit materialization. About this 
time his daughter ' ' Dolly ' ' died, and he was deeply 
interested in the apparitions or materializations which 



Spiritism — Demonism, 59 

professed to be "Dolly." He, however, was incredu- 
lous, and, in his own words, * 'gave it up under a cloud, 
and a suspicion of fraud/ ' But after five years of ex- 
perience he says, — "Whatever doubts I may have en- 
tertained respecting the phenomena, I am clearly of 
the opinion that honest materializations are now of fre- 
quent occurrence. Who the forms are, or whence de- 
rived, is a mooted question.' ' We have just seen 
that if the manifestations are " honest " so far as the 
mediumship is concerned, they are frauds so far as 
the persons represented are concerned — simulations of 
the dead, by the fallen angels. 

Later the table- tipping and rapping and drawing 
and writing tests were revived at Mr. H.'s home, two 
of his children becoming adept mediums, and finally, 
he himself became a writing medium, to his own sur- 
prise and without expectation or solicitation. Now he 
could and did hold frequent converse supposedly with 
his daughter " Dolly/ ' but really with demons who per- 
sonated her, and others, he w r as caused to smell pleas- 
ant odors, etc. As a later development he became a speak- 
ing medium, and "under control" would speak and act 
without his own intention or volition; but with full 
power to refuse to be a medium to such "spirits' ' as he 
chose to refuse, because of their former rudeness or ob- 
scenity. Next he was granted the ' 'inner ear, ' ' " Clair- 
audience," or ability to hear sounds not audible to 
others, and thus to hold converse with the " spirits " 
without any outward agency, such as writing, rap- 
ping, etc. 

Of his "spirit friends" he says, — "They described 
to me that their controlling circle consisted of 'twelve 
spiritual gifts or virtues' which composed a 'band' of 



60 What Say the Scriptures? 

very great strength; and under their guidance, they 
declared, I would become one of the greatest mediums 
ever known. I revolted — had not the least ambition for 
fame of that sort. — They were the more determined.' ' 

Thus gradually was Mr. Hartman brought, against 
his wish, more and more under the "control" of the 
wicked spirits which finally obsessed him. The next 
experience was with a peculiar clairaudient "Voice" 
which represented itself to be the Lord and took full 
control of him, directing his every a<5l. It pictured all 
his errors and weaknesses in darkest shades; and en- 
deavored to destroy all hope. He was told to pray, 
and when he attempted to pray he was given such con- 
flicting suggestions as to words as made it impossible. 
He was fast in the snare of the "wicked spirits;" 
"possessed," and controlled by "spirit-mesmerism," 
as he calls it. 

But finally he escaped their bondage ; — a once 
strong will reasserted itself, and he wrote the account 
to hinder others from being similarly entrapped. But 
he does not understand the matter, notwithstanding his 
remarkable experiences. His experiences had proved 
that all the "spirits" which he had come in contadl 
with were "wicked," lying, profane, and a majority 
of them vulgarly and disgustingly obscene: Yet, be- 
lieving these to be the spirits of dead men and women, 
he surmised that he had met a band of evil ones only, 
and that there were other bands of good, truthful and 
pure spirits of good people. If he had but known the 
Lord's testimony on this subject, it would have put the 
entire matter in another light. 

After gaining ^///-control of himself he was still 
attended by these evil spirits whose character he now 



Spiritism — Demonism . 6 1 

fully knew; and they tried repeatedly to bring his will 
power again under "control," but had no power that 
he would not grant. He did, however, grant them 
liberty to use his hand in writing communications, and 
in reply to his questions respecting how and why they 
had abused his confidence, lied to him, were obscene 
and sought to bind and injure him, they answered that 
they were constitutionally and thoroughly bad and that 
they were "devils;" — again contradicting this and de- 
claring that they were spirits of dead human beings. 
But to confirm him in Swedenborgianism they told him 
that there were no Swedenborgians among them. And 
Hartman evidently believed these self- confessed "lying 
spirits," for he concludes his book by quoting proofs 
that Swedenborg had passed through experiences of ob- 
session somewhat like his own. He quotes from Swe- 
denborg's Diary 2957-2996 as follows: — 

"Very often when any one spoke with me, spirits 
spoke through me. . . . This occurred many times; for 
instance twice to-day. I cannot enumerate the times, 
they are so many. . . . Moreover, they have laughed 
through me, and done many thugs. . . . These are those 
who introduce these things into my thoughts, and 
while I am unconscious of it, lead my hand to write 
thus." 

Hartman says of Swedenborg further: — 
"It is a matter of history that Swedenborg's ma- 
ligners, not understanding interior temptations or spirit 
control, published that he was crazy, and that he did 
several foolish and insane things while living in London. 
. . . He was under control of spirits who aCted through 
his body, speaking through him and moving his body 
as if it were their own. . . . During a part of this 
transitional period he was unquestionably controlled by 
evil spirits. He says he had ' tremors and was shaken 
from head to foot, and thrown out of bed on his face* 



62 What Say the Scriphires? 

. . . * I was in the temptation/ he says, thoughts in- 
vaded me that I could not control, . . . and full liber- 
ty was given them. . . . While I had the most dam- 
nable thoughts, the worst that could possibly be, Jesus 
Christ was presented visibly before my internal sight. ' ' ' 

Mr. Hartman comments: — " This we believe was 
an evil spirit pretending to be Christ, as in our own 
case the spirit pretended to be God." 

To us it seems evident that Swedenborg was a 
Spirit- medium and was an advance agent for promul- 
gating and establishing the ' 'dodtrines of devils' ' re- 
specting "seven heavens and seven hells,' ' etc., etc., 
ad nauseam. Yet Mr. Hartman closes his book with 
a eulogy of Swedenborg; who, altho admittedly pos- 
sessed of devils at times, he thinks was sometimes pos- 
sessed and controlled by good spirits: while Hartman' s 
own experience corroborated the Scriptures, that they 
are all "wicked," "seducing," "lying" spirits. 

MANY POSSESSED OF DEVILS TO-DAY. 



In a pamphlet entitled — "The Nature of Insanity; 
its Cause and Cure", — by J. D. Rhymus, the author 
shows that in many cases insanity is merely demoniacal 
possession or "obsession." He says, — 

"In my own case I know that the brain was not 
diseased at all; my whole nature seemed to be intensi- 
fied by conflicting emotions raging within my breast. 
I was completely enveloped and pervaded by thought, 
or in other words thought came as something impinged 
upon me, seeking expression through me, without being 
coined or generated by the action of my own brain, 
altho fully conscious at the time, as I am now, that I 
possessed a strength within me not my own will and 
brain power so-called; — yet it was so blended with, and 
manifested through my own powers of adtion, that I felt 



Spiritism — Demonism. 63 

great exhaustion of nerve force and mental prostration 
when the conditions subsided." 

After detailing his own case and his release from 
the thraldom of evil spirits, whom he supposed to be 
the spirits of wicked dead men (apparently he also was 
a follower of Swedenborg), he quotes a letter from a 
Philadelphia physician, dated Nov. 12, 1884, as fol- 
lows: — 

11 The young lady to whom you refer in your let- 
ter is a Miss S , who was once my patient and quite 

intimate in my family. Her father was a sea captain, 
and was lost at sea, no one knowing when or where. 
Her anxiety to learn something of his fate, led her to 
apply to a spirit medium. She was found to be very 
'susceptible' and a remarkable medium. She did noth- 
ing to encourage the approach of spirits; but they came 
all the same. They almost tormented the life out of 
her for a long time — how long I do not remember. 
They often made her get out of bed at night and per- 
form all sorts of grotesque antics. She finally drove 
them off by repeating the Lord's Prayer on their every 
approach. Your sincere friend, ." 

The same writer says: — 

"Judge Edmonds of New York [a noted Spiritist 
and both a Clairvoyant and Clairaudient medium — now 
deceased], has recently expressed the opinion that 
many so-called lunatics in asylums are only under the 
influence of spirits. * 9 The Judge himself said, — 'Some 
fifteen cases of insanity, or rather obsession y I have 
been instrumental in curing. This I said to the Acad- 
emy of Science, in New York.' 

1 'The Judge has had Catholic priests, after a thorough 
trial of their 'holy water and prayers,' send [to him} 
their mediumistic members when wickedly disordered, 
to be demagnetized and released from the grasp of ob- 
sessional spirits." 



64 What Say the Scriptures? 

SPIRITISM REVIVING. 



Few are aware to what extent Spiritism is now 
adlive; how it is gradually reviving. Here is an ac- 
count of Dr. Peebles' visit to Melbourne, Australia, 
this year, 1897. He writes to The Philadelphia Jour- 
nal as follows: — 

" Altho I had come for a rest, I was immediately 
pressed into adlive service, and have been ledluring 
every Sunday evening either in the Masonic hall (which 
seats 1300) or the Lyceum (700), both of them being 
filled at times to overflowing. I have also spoken in 
the Unitarian and Swedenborgian churches, and the 
Australian (Presbyterian) church, on vegetarianism 
and other reform subjedls. 

1 ' Several mediums speak about coming to Aus- 
tralia. Before leaving, let me tell you that the Mel- 
bourne press says there are already 500 mediums in the 
city and suburbs, while others say 200, but I see none 
who compare with Mrs. Freitag, and others. I cannot, 
conscientiously, encourage mediums to come to Aus- 
tralia, unless they are absolutely first- class test mediums. 
That's what the people clamor for — tests, tests, tests. 
Old, bald headed Spiritualists, who had tests years 
ago, want them renewed, and so seek for tests instead 
of going on to a higher plane of harmony, beauty and 
spiritual truth, becoming their own mediums.' ' 

Yes; the tests, rapping, writing, table- tipping, 
and even materialization tests are only the beginnings 
of Spiritism, and not the desired ends sought by the 
spirits. The end sought is possession " obsession; and 
those who by strong self-control constantly resist ab- 
solute spirit- control are used as " test mediums,' ' to 
catch others, and to exhort others, as above, to go "on 
to a higher plane of harmony" with lying, seducing, 
^slaving and demonizing spirits. 



Spiritism — Demonism . 65 

An English journal called Black and White gives 
a detailed and illustrated account of recent apparitions 
at the town of Tilly-sur-Seulles, Normandy, France. 
It says that the apparitions are of the Virgin Mary 
and have continued for several months, and are thor- 
oughly vouched for. It adds : — 

"The appearances, which seldom or never resemble 
each other even to the same voyants, always either as- 
cend from the earth, as in the case of those of the Witch 
of Endor, or appear gradually bit by bit, first a leg, 
then an arm, and so on, at a slight elevation. All this 
is very queer reading. 

" The trampled field of oats, the elm tree stripped 
of its branches by relic-hunters, the torn hedge pro- 
tected by barbed wire and decorated with statues pic- 
tures, rosaries, pots of flowers and votive tapers, re- 
main to testify to a belief in the supernatural not less 
strong than it was in mediaeval times.' ' 

Black and White> after quoting from the Croix du 
Calvados (the official organ of the Roman Catholic 
Bishop of the diocese), that, " Altho it cannot doubt 
the/a^Z of the appearances, it is inclined more and more 
to attribute them to diabolic intervention ," adds:— 

"If anything, this is calculated to lend them 
still greater interest in the eyes of the world which, 
at the end of the nineteenth century, shows itself 
especially ready to dabble in Satanism, crystal-gaz- 
ing, astrology, theosophy, spiritualism and magic, 
both black and white. The chief points in favor of this 
clerical decision seem to be that one Vintras, who lived 
in an old mill, still standing on the banks of the Seulles, 
below the older village of Tilly, prophesied these ap- 
paritions about the year '30. Vintras was condemned 
as a sorcerer and incarcerated at Caen by request of 
Pope Gregory xvi. He claimed to have been 'inspired 1 
by the Archangel Michael. Curiously enough, another 
'prophet/ claiming to be inspired by another Arch 
5 



66 Wliat Say the Scriptures? 

angel, Gabriel to wit, — namely Mile. Cuedon, who has 
made a stir in Paris lately, and whom a certain Abbe 
declares to be 'possessed* rather than 'inspired, 9 pro- 
phesied these same apparitions at Tilly a fortnight be- 
fore they began." 

Satan's motto seems to be, Anything to deceive 
and bewilder humanity and to hinder the truth now 
due to them from reaching them. From an English 
Spiritist journal Light, we quote a recent statement 
of a seance, as follows: — 

11 At a sitting which was being held one evening 
at the invitation of a mother who had just lost a dearly 
loved son, amongst other phenomena a remarkable 
light was seen. It was in the form of a beautiful rad- 
iant globe, the center of which was a bright blue of 
great brilliancy. It was apparently an immeasurable 
distance away, the wall of the room offering no ob- 
struction to those who watched it, and it remained for 
about half an hour, when it gradually faded from their 
sight. 

il All present were filled with a sense of deep rev- 
erence and veneration. The control [i. e. , the spirit 
controlling the medium] explained that this was indeed 
the Light of Christ, who, in verification of the belief 
which is now very generally held by Christians of every 
denomination, is gradually approaching this earth ; 
and in fulfilment of His words, spoken nearly two 
thousand years ago, is coming to establish his King- 
dom, the reign of universal love and brotherhood, 
amongst us. 

"The control further said: 'Write thus to the ed- 
itor of Light, Tell him that light is coming to all men. 
It grows brighter day by day. This light is the Light 
that should lighten all men that come into the world. 
Love is embodied in it. Truth is bringing it. Wis- 
dom teaches it. Faith reveals it. Hope nourishes it. 
Justice craves for it. Glory attends it. Peace claims 
it. Power waits for it. This remarkable light is at- 



Spiritism — Demonism. 67 

tended by hosts of angels ; by dwellers in the spheres 
of the Blest; by mighty conquerors; by those whose 
sins, being scarlet, now shine radiant in this Light. 
Perfected good, perfected man, perfedted light. 

" Beautiful angels surrounded the medium. The 
Light appeared behind her; but she was pleased to know 
that the greatest glory shone when she spoke of Christ* s 
power. Altho not herself viewing the greatest glory 
of the Light she saw it, far, far away, having a star- 
like radiance. 9 ' 

Just as at his first advent the evil spirits acknowl- 
edged Jesus, saying, "We know thee, who thou art." 
"What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of 
God?" and as they testified of the apostles, — " These 
be the servants of the most high God which show unto 
us the way of eternal life; so to-day, as we have seen, 
some of them will testify occasionally to the truth, 
commend Miixenniai, Dawn, etc. ; but it is safe to 
assume that it is all for a purpose ; as a " bait " for 
those who are interested or seeking light along these 
lines, to eventually lead them off into some gross dark- 
ness. Let us constantly remember that these decep- 
tions will become so bold, and be apparently so backed 
by advanced truth that they will, "if it were possible, 
deceive the very eledl." — Matt. 24: 24-26. 

Under such circumstances there is but one safe 
course. It is not to stand still with closed eyes, panic 
stricken : that will be impossible, very soon. It is to 
fully accept of Christ Jesus the redeemer ; the ransomer 
of the race as your Savior and your Teacher, and to 
be controlled only by his spirit of truth expressed to 
man through his Word — the Bible. So doing you will be 
kept by the power of God from all the snares of the 
wicked one; for the gospel is the power of God unto 



68 What Say the Scriptures? 

salvation to every one that [obediently] believeth." 
To what great dangers the people of Christendom 
are exposed we may judge when we remember that 
nearly all are laboring under the delusion of Satan, 
first enunciated to Mother Eve in Eden, — to her de- 
ception and fall. He then said, " Ye shall not surely 
die." He has kept up his side of the controversy 
since then, and the majority of God's people believe 
Satan's statement and disbelieve the Lord's word ; — 
holding that no one really dies, but that, when death 
apparently takes place the person is thereby made ' * more 
alive than ever." Believing that none are really dead, 
we cannot wonder that Christendom totally rejedlsthe 
Bible dodlrine that the only hope for a future life rests 
in God's promise of a " resurrection of the dead," and 
makes nonsense of it by claiming that it is merely a 
resurredlion of the body that died — which the Apostle 
declares will never be resurrected — but a new body be 
substituted when the soul, the being is resurredled. — 
i Cor. 15 : 1 2-1 8 and 36-38. 

In evidence of the dangers along this line we note 
the f adt that in a very recent issue of " The Ram y s 
Horn, ' ' a radical orthodox journal of Chicago published 
on its outside cover a colored engraving representing 
a Christian mother with clasped hands, praying beside 
a little grave decorated with flowers, while just before 
her is shown the shadowy outline of her child ap- 
proaching her. The editor of The Ram's Horn and 
his readers are like all other nominal Christians who 
neglecft the teachings of God's Word on this subjedl ; 
—just ready for Satan's delusions to ensnare them. 

Note also the following, clipped from the Jan. 2, 
'97, issue of The Philosophical Journal (Spiritualist). 



Spiritism — Demonism. 69 

Under the caption "Progressive Thought y the editor 
quotes from Rev. T. De Witt Talmage' s discourse of 
Dec. 6, '96, as follows : — 

" Even Talmage has progressed from the old faith, 
and now believes in the return of the spirit to this 
world of ours after death. On December 6 he preached 
a Sermon at Washington on the * Celestial World/ 
showing the employment of 'the departed' in that state 
of existence. In answer to the question: 'What are 
the departed doing now?' he said: 'That question is 
more easily answered than you might suppose/ and 
adds : — 

11 'Their hand has forgotten its cunning, but the 
spirit has faculties as far superior to four fingers and a 
thumb as the supernatural is superior to the human. 
The reason that God took away their eye and their 
hand and their brain, was that he might give them 
something more limber, more wieldy, more skillful, 
more multipliant. ' 

"Dr. Talmage says that the spirits, freed from 
the material body, are 'more limber, more skillful/ 
and 'are at their old business yet/ but with vastly im- 
proved faculties. He argues it thus : — 

" c Have you any idea that that affluence of faculty 
at death, collapsed and perished ? Why so, when there 
is more for them to look at, and they have keener ap- 
preciation of the beautiful, and they stand amid the 
very looms where the sunsets and the rainbows and the 
spring mornings are woven. 

" ' Are you so obtuse as to suppose that because 
the painter drops his easel and the sculptor his chisel, 
and the engraver his knife, that therefore that taste, 
which he was enlarging or intensifying for forty or 
fifty years, is entirely obliterated ? 

' ' ' These artists, or friends of art, on earth worked 
in coarse material and with imperfect brain and with 



70 What Say the Scriptures? 

frail hand. Now they have carried their art into larger 
liberties and into wider circumferences. 

" ' They are at their old business yet, but with- 
out the fatigues, without the limitations, without the 
hindrances of the terrestrial studio/ 

" In answer to the question as to what the phy- 
sicians are doing, since they passed to 'the beyond/ 
he says they 'are busy at their old business/ and adds: 

" ' No sickness in heaven, but plenty of sickness 
on earth, plenty of wounds in the different parts of 
God's dominion to be healed and to be medicated. 
Those glorious souls are coming down, not in lazy doc- 
tor's gig, but with lightning locomotion. 

" ' You cannot understand why that patient got 
well after all the skillful dodlors had said he must die. 
Perhaps Abercrombie touched him. I should not wonder 
if he had been back again to see some of his old patients. 
Those who had their joy in healing the sickness and 
the woes of earth, gone up to heaven are come forth 
again for benignant medicament/ 

"Then he propounds another question, as to what 
all the departed are doing now — who in earth-life were 
'busy, and found their chief joy in doing good.' He 
replies : They are 'going right on with the work.' 

' 'John Howard visiting dungeons; the dead women 
of Northern and Southern battlefields still abroad look- 
ing for the wounded; George Peabody still watching 
the poor;Thomas Clarkson still looking after the en- 
slaved — all of those who did good on earth, busier since 
death than before. The tombstone is not the terminus, 
but the starting-post. J 

"He then concludes with this very emphatic 
language: — 

" 'To show you that your departed friends are 
more alive than they ever were; to make you home- 
sick for heaven; to give you an enlarged view of the 
glories to be revealed, I have preached this sermon/ 



Spiritism — Demonism. 7 1 

"Without the slightest doubt then, Dr. DeWitt 
Talmage is a Spiritualist. He does not claim that cog- 
nomen, but he teaches the grand tenets of our philo- 
sophy and admits the consequent phenomena of the 
return of the spirit to visit mortals — spirit physicians 
to touch those given up to die by mortal physicians, 
and to heal them — to visit those in dungeons in order 
to relieve their distress — to watch the poor — to look 
after the enslaved — and in this work to be 'busier 
since death than before !' 

" If ' the departed are more alive than they ever 
were ' — as Dr. Talmage affirms in his closing remarks 
— then it is evident that he was corredl in saying that 
1 the tombstone is not the terminus, but the starting 
post " — the 'door' to the higher life, the entrance to 
the state of endless labor, grand possibilities, and eter- 
nal progression. 

"If Dr. Talmage thought more of these grand 
truths than of his clerical standing, he would frankly 
avow himself a Spiritualist. 

11 All the churches are rapidly becoming permeat- 
ed with Spiritual philosophy, and soon must either add 
to their structural confession these grand and inspiring 
verities, or sink into oblivion in the twentieth century, 
when the cycle of evolution shall be completely round- 
ed out." 

Who can deny the logic of the Spiritualist editor 
in claiming Dr. Talmage as a Spiritualist, who refrains 
from fully acknowledging his identity ? Who can doubt 
that the hundreds of thousands who read that discourse 
in the many journals which publish Dr. Talmage's 
discourses regularly, accepted every item of its poison- 
ous, unscriptural suggestion as gospel; because in full 



72 What Say the Scriptures f 

accord with what they had been taught from other 
pulpits, and especially at funeral services ? Alas ! the 
millions of Christendom are ready, ripe, for the evil 
work of these seducing spirits. 

Note the following hand-bill announcement of 
Spiritist performances and tests, given at Muskegon, 
Michigan, recently: it is in display type and illustrated 
etchings showing shadowy forms, etc. — and was sent 
to us through the Iyord's providence just in time for a 
notice here. It reads thus: — 

" Opera House, under the auspices of the Religio- 
Philosophical Society of Boston, Mass., Sunday night, 
April ii, 1897. 

" Spirit materializations, marvelous superhuman 
visions, Spiritualistic rappings, slate writing, floating 
tables and chairs, remarkable tests of the human mind, 
a human being isolated from surrounding objedts float- 
ing in mid air. Behold the marvels of to-day! Refledl 
on the one great question of the hour: Is there a spirit 
land ? and what is the destiny of man ? Do you want 
to be convinced that there is a hereafter ? Do you be- 
lieve in immortality ? Do you believe in a soul world ? 
or do you believe that death ends all ? 

"Dr. Loyd Cooke, preeminently peer of spirit 
mediums, assisted by a number of mediums of note, on 
the open stage, will produce some of the most wonder- 
ful materializations ever witnessed in this country. 

" The following are some of the tests that usually 
take place in the presence of these mediums : A table 
rises 4 to 5 feet and floats in mid-air. Spirit hands and 
faces are plainly seen and recognized by their friends. 
A guitar is played and passed around the room by the 
invisible power. Flowers are brought and passed to 
the audience by hands plainly seen. Bells are rung, 
harps are played, and other tests of a startling nature 
take place in the presence of these wonderful mediums, 
if the conditions are stridlly complied with. 



Spiritism — Demonism. 73 

I * A night of wonderful manif estions ! The veil 
drawn so that all may have an insight into the spirit 
world and behold many things that are strange and 
startling. 

II The clergy, the press, learned synods and coun- 
cils, sage philosophers and scientists, in facft, the whole 
world has proclaimed these philosophical idealisms to 
be an astounding fadt. You are brought face to face 
with the spirits. A large piano is played upon with- 
out a living soul touching it. And many spirit forms 
upon the stage — sometimes eight or ten at a time — are 
proof positive of the genuineness of these mediums. 
They have been three years developing for the special 
purpose of demonstrating the fadls of spirit power in 
full gas light ! 

"The invisible powers are constantly producing 
new and startling manifestations to convert the skep- 
tical and strengthen the believer. Come and see for 
yourself. Take no one's word. Investigate and be- 
lieve your own eyes. Be guided by your own reason. 
Believe nothing you hear ! Every man and woman has 
a right to see and think. 

1 'Many ask: 'Is there any truth in Spiritualism ? ' If 
you should attend this seance with these new mediums, 
you would never doubt again that the spirits do re- visit 
the earth, and can be seen and recognized by their 
friends. Thy will stand beside you and shake hands 
with any one who will ask them. Remember, this 
seance is not like others you have attended. The forms 
seen here are not afraid of you, but will come so close 
to you that you cannot doubt their identity, and will 
satisfy you that they are not flesh of this earth. No 
one who has ever attended these seances can doubt 
the genuineness of these mediums. Remember, these 
are newly developed mediums, just arrived at this 
place, and are recognized by all that have seen them 
to have the most powerful circle that has ever been 
brought to this country. Not in darkness, but in open 
light. You feel their touch. You see their disembodied 



74 What Say the Scriptures ? 

forms. In plain, open light ! Every possible means 
will be used to enlighten the auditors as to whether 
these so-called wonders are enadled through the aid of 
spirits or are the result of natural agencies. 

" Committees will be selected by the audience to 
assist, and to report their views as to the why and 
wherefore of the many very strange things that will be 
shown during the evening. This is done so that every 
person attending may learn the truth regarding the 
tests, whether they are genuine or caused by expert 
trickery. Doors open at 7.15. Commences at 8. A 
small admission will be charged. 

SPIRITS NOW ORGANIZE "CHURCHES." 



Finding that Churchianity is popular, and a cer- 
tain amount of formalism demanded by the people they 
seek to ensnare, Spiritists are organizing " churches " 
for the " worship " and " praise " of the " All Good/ 9 
— the name they use instead of God. But since ad- 
vanced Spiritists do not believe in a personal God this 
name merely represents to them — all good spirits y among 
whom they reckon Thomas Paine, Shakespeare, Judas 
and Nero, as well as Christ, Confucious and Buddha. 
In these "churches 99 — "Spiritualist, 9 ' "Theosophical 99 
and "Christian Scientist, 99 all of the same cult, and all 
guided (unknown to many of their votaries) by the 
same master spirit — Satan — the preachers and evangel- 
ists are generally women : in marked contrast (what- 
ever the explanation) with the course pursued by the 
true Head of the one and only true Church, our Lord 
Jesus, — who appointed twelve apostles and seventy 
evangelists, all of them men. 

The newspapers gave an account of a Spiritist 
baptism service, at the "First Church of Spiritualists,' 9 



Spiritism — Demonism. 75 

Pittsburg, on Sunday, Dec. 13, '96, by Mrs. Ida Whit- 
lock, of Boston, as follows: — 

" When the babies* parents and godmothers had 
been assembled, deacons of the church brought out a 
long flower- decked rope, which they tied about the 
participants in the ceremony. Mrs. Whitlock gave 
each baby a small bunch of carnations, handing them 
from a silver bowl. Having completed this ceremony, 
Mrs. Whitlock took another silver bowl, and, advanc- 
ing to each baby, she dipped into the bowl a rose and 
sprinkled the faces of those to be baptized, saying as she 
did so, 'I, Ida Whitlock, by a power commissioned to me, 
do baptize thee, Anna Marie Klotz, in the name of the 
All Good.' Alderman Klotz, of Allegheny, is the 
father of this child. ' ■ 

The power commissioned to Mrs. Whitlock was 
certainly not from the Father, nor from the Son, nor 
by the holy spirit ; and we feel confident it was from 
the one who backs all the tests and tricks and lies and 
obsessions: — " Your Adversary the Devil." — 1 Pet. 5:8. 

"IN THE SECRET CHAMBER." 



Brother Thori of St. Paul, Minn., sends us the 
card of a Dr. Snyder of that city, who styles himself 
a Christian Spiritualist and claims that he and others 
there hold regular seances in which the Lord as a spirit 
being shows himself to their mortal eyes. He says 
that about forty persons there have seen these mani- 
festations. Three of them received "the communion" 
diredl from the Lord's hand. The card received bears 
sixteen texts from the Bible, among which are the 
following: — 

11 God is a spirit.' ' 

<( Iatn the light of the world." 

"He that keepeth my commandments, he it is 



76 What Say the Scriptures'? 

that loveth me; and lie that loveth me shall be loved 
of my Father; and I will love him, and will manifest 
myself to him." — John 14: 21. 

In large type at the head of the card are these 
words : — 
"have you seen the i,ord? if not, why not?" 

Brother Thori remarks that the Dodtor appears to 
be very pious, and professes faith in the ransom and 
in restitution. The incident at once reminded Brother 
T. of the statement of Mh,i,enniai< Dawn, Voi,. ii., 
page 158, which reads as follows : — 

"Among other such things some of them even 
teach that Christ is present \ and we doubt not ere long 
they will give seances at which they will claim to show 
him 'in the secret chamber/ n (Matt. 24: 26.) Brother 
T. called the Doctor's attention to this Scripture and 
this application of it ; but he was so enamored by the 
seducing spirits that he could make no application of 
it to his own experiences. He declared that it referred 
to such preposterous frauds as Schweinfurth. 

Here we see more of Satan's policy: he works one 
fraud against another. A few weak-minded people are 
deluded into thinking and claiming that they are ' 'some 
great one' ' — Christs, etc., — and by hypnotic powers 
deluding a few into their " heavens,' ' thus disgust 
more sensible people, who, believing that these frauds 
fulfil the scope of our Lord's warning, are off guard 
against the much more subtle deceptions of Spiritism 
which draw nearer and nearer daily. 

Then again, true to his character as a deceiver, 
Satan begins all such performances with the outwardly 
devout. He puts a bait on his hook when he fishes 
for men. It will be found that self-willed Christians, 



Spiritism — Demonism. 7 7 

no matter what their morals or faith, will be subjedt to 
snares of the great enemy. The full submission of the 
will to the will of God as expressed in his Word is ab- 
solutely necessary to overcome the world, the flesh and 
the devil. 

"WE ARE NOT IGNORANT OF HIS DEVICES." 



We will no doubt surprise some when we state that 
to our understanding "Christian Science/ ' "Theoso- 
phy/' " Mesmerism/ ' " Clairvoyance" and "Hypnot- 
ism, as well as "Swedenborgianism," are all related 
to Spiritism, and designed by the "seducing spirits' ■ 
to enthral and "pass along" the various classes of man- 
kind who are now awakening out of mental lethargy ; 
and to blind their eyes to the truth respecting the Lord 
and his Word. — 2 Cor. 4: 4. 

" Christian Science" by its attractive but decep- 
tive name, no less than by its lying proposition that 
there is no pain, no sickness, no death, no sin, no devil, 
no Savior — nor need of any — by the very absurdity of 
its claims attracts the curious ; and by its seeming 
harmlessness and "good works' ' ensnares the unguard- 
ed and uninstrudled, who do not know "the depths of 
Satan/' (Rev. 2:24.) Their processes for treatment 
of "imagined" diseases seem harmless, but are their 
cures therefore less of the demons and more of God 
than those of Spiritualists ? While a pure faith in the 
first principles of the dodtrines of Christ is not to be 
accepted as instead of good morals, the latter are never- 
theless to be considered as concomitants to every mani- 
festation of divine favor and power. All, therefore, 
who deny our Lord Jesus as the Redeemer of mankind 
"who gave his life a ransom- price for many," are not 



78 What Say the Scriptures f 

of God, and their " wonderful works," whether good 
or bad, are not to be credited to divine power.* 

It may be questioned by some whether Satan and 
his associates can be charged on the one hand with 
causing sickness and death (Heb. 2:14), and on the 
other hand with healing the sick and casting out devils. 
Would not this seem to be an opposition to his own 
kingdom not supposable of any intelligent being. " If 
Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself ; 
how shall then his kingdom stand ?' ' — Matt. 12:25, 26; 
Mark 3: 24-26. 

Very true ; and this shows to what straits " the 
prince of this world " is reduced by the great increase 
of intelligence shining in upon the world during the past 
century. The demons must sham to be "angels of 
light y f ' teachers of advanced truths and good physicians, 
both of souls and bodies, in order to reensnare those 
who are feeling after God, if haply they might find 
him. (Adls 17:27.) The words of inspiration give us 
to understand that Satan's struggles to retain control 
of mankind will be specially desperate at its close — 
before he is ' 'bound' ■ for the thousand years that he 
may deceive the nations no more. — Rev. 20: 1. 

Here will be one of the " strong- delusions n men- 
tioned by the Apostle Paul, to cope with which God's 
people will have need of "the whole armor God" that 
they "may be able to stand in this evil day." (2 Thes. 
2:9-12 ; Eph. 6:11-13 ) We are now in the period of 
which he cautions us to be specially on guard against 
1 'seaucing spirits and dodtrines of devils. ■ ' ( 1 Tim. 4:1.) 
Here the Apostle Peter tells us to "beware lest ye 

* For an examination of " Christian Science" see Zion's Watch 
Tower of May, 1891. 



Spiritism — Dewionism. 79 

also being led away [seduced] by the error of the 
wicked [one] fall from your own steadfastness. ' \ (2 Pet. 
3:17.) Hence the Lord tells us to watch and pray to 
escape the delusions which will be so strong as to ' i de- 
ceive if it were possible the very eledl. " (Matt. 24:24.) 
Shall we, in view of these warnings, expedtno "strong 
delusions,' ' deceptions from the wicked spirits? Nay ; 
we expedt far more during the next few years than 
even Spiritists have dreamed of hitherto. 

SATANIC POWERS MALIFIC. 



But if Satan and his faithful have a knowledge of 
curative agencies and skill in their application let us 
not forget that he has great malific power also. This 
has already been demonstrated. Take the case of 
Jannes and Jambres, the celebrated mediums and ma- 
gicians of Egypt, who in the presence of Pharaoh 
duplicated many of the miracles performed by divine 
power through Moses and Aaron. They could trans- 
form their rods into serpents ; they also turned water 
into blood ; they also produced frogs, altho they could 
not duplicate the plagues of lice, etc.— Exod. 7:11, 
22 ; 8 : 7. 

We have every reason to believe that the fallen 
spirits have learned considerable during the past four 
thousand years and that they have a much wider range 
of power to-day. We are inclined to believe that the 
grasshopper plagues and the multitudinous farmer- 
pests and the spores and microbes of disease that are 
afflidling human and animal life in recent times, may 
be manifestations of the same power for evil. Simil- 
arly Satan is "the prince of the power of the air," and 



80 What Say the Scriptures? 

is malevolent enough to exercise his powers to the 
extent of divine permission. This might account in 
part for the great floods, cyclones and tornados of re- 
cent years. 

But surely such forces of nature are not left in 
the charge of demons ? some one inquires. 

Not entirely; — most assuredly not; otherwise we 
may doubt if the world would be at all habitable. Take 
the case of Job: as soon as divine restraints upon Satan 
were released, he moved the Sabeans to steal Job's 
cattle and to kill his servants; he caused fire to come 
down from heaven, which not only killed but burned 
up Job's flocks of sheep; he sent the Chaldeans who 
stole Job's camels, and finally produced a cyclone which 
smote the house in which Job's children were feasting 
together, and destroyed the house and killed its occu- 
pants ; and he attacked Job's person with disease as 
soon as granted permission. — Job. i : 9-2: 7. 

There is no question that Satan and his legions 
are as able and as willing as ever to do all the mischief 
that divine wisdom may see fit to permit them to do. 
It only remains, therefore, to notice that God has not 
only foretold that he will permit them to have great 
power in the end of this age, but also why he does so. 
He tells us that he is about to ''pour out his indigna- 
tion, even all his fierce anger/ ' upon the world of 
mankind, as a chastisement for sin and for a correction 
toward righteousness; to humble mankind and to pre- 
pare them for the blessings of the Millennial Kingdom. 
All are familiar with the plagues foretold in the book 
of Revelation about to be poured upon the world in 
the end and j udgment of this age. Of these the plagues 
npon Egypt were illustrations, — even tho the coming 



Spiritism — Demonism. 8 1 

plagues be described in symbols. But let us always re- 
member God's care over his people to preserve them 
from every calamity which would not under divine su- 
pervision work out for them some valuable lesson or ex- 
perience; and let us remember that he is able and will- 
ing to overrule the wrath of men and of devils and to 
restrain the remainder that would hinder his grand 
purposes. 

The following words of Rev. A. B. Simpson are 
quite to the point : — 

11 The healing of diseases is also said to follow the 
practices of Spiritualism, and Animal Magnetism, 
Clairvoyance, etc. We will not deny that while some 
of the manifestations of Spiritualism are undoubted 
frauds, there are many that are unquestionably super- 
natural, and are produced by forces for which Physical 
Science has no explanation. It is no use to try to 
meet this terrific monster of Spiritualism, in which, as 
Joseph Cook says, is, perhaps, the great if of our im- 
mediate future in England and America, with the hasty 
and shallow denial of the f adls, or their explanation as 
tricks of legerdemain. They are often undoubtedly 
real and superhuman. They are 'the spirits of devils 
working miracles, ' gathering men for Armageddon. 
They are the revived forces of the Egyptian magicians, 
the Grecian oracles, the Roman haruspices, the Indian 
medicine-men. They are not divine, they are less than 
omnipotent, but they are more than human. Our I^ord 
has expressly warned us of them, and told us to test 
them, not by their power, but by their fruits, their 
holiness, humility and homage to the name of Jesus 
and the Word of God; and their very existence ren- 
ders it the more imperative that we should be able to 
present against them — like the rod of Moses which 
swallowed the magicians', and at last silenced their 
limited power, — the living forces of a holy Chris- 
tianity.' ' 



82 What Say the Scriptures f 

In conclusion let spiritual Israel hear the Word of 
the Lord to fleshly Israel: — 

" When thou art come into the land which the 
I^ord thy God giveth thee, thou shall not learn to do 
after the abominations of Those nations. There 
shall not be found among you any one that • . . . 
uskth divination, or an observer of times, or an en- 
chanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with 
familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For 
all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord; 
and because of these abominations the I/>rd thy God doth 
drive them out from before thee." — Deut 18: 9-12. 

" When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them 
that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep 
and mutter: Should not a people SEEK unto Their 
God ? on behalf of the living should they seek unto 
the dead ? To the law and the testimony : if they 
speak not according to this word, it is because there is 
no light in them." — Isa. 8: 19-20. 



LATER REPORTS 
RESPECTING SPIRITISM. 



The foregoing was published in Zion's Watch Towee 
in parts in several issues in June and July, '97. Since 
then, many who read it have sent in confirmatory re- 
ports. Among those of sufficient interest for publica- 
tion are the following. 

A camp-meeting of Spiritists and Theosophists is 
reported in the Allegheny Record of Sept. 9, '97, by an 
Allegheny lady who says: — 

"I am frank lo confess that two more delighted 
weeks I never enjoyed than the past fortnight, spent in 
that so-called 4 hot-bed of Spiritualism, Cassadaga Camp, 
Lily Dale, N. Y.' 

"If we as Christians could or would open our hearts 
to the truth as presented there this season by such giant 
intellects as Lyman C. Howe, of Fredonia; Judge Rich- 
mond, of Meadville; Dr. Hicks, New York; Mrs. Carrie 
E. Twing, of Westfieid, N. Y. ; Mrs. Sheets, from Mich- 
igan; Annie Besant and others — if, I repeat, the teach- 
ings of all such representatives of the faith could be 
received into honest, unbiased hearts, then would there 
by sucli soul-expansion as would burst the narrow con- 
fines of the average orthodox intelligence, and Spiritual- 
ism, instead of being shunned as a freakish, uncanny 
something, unworthy the thought and attention of in- 
telligent minds, would at least be given the advantage 
of a fair trial. 

' ' I wonder how many bound down by orthodox pre- 
judices know that this belief is founded upon principles 

(83) 



84 What Say the Scriptures? 

immutable as time itself, and that honest investigators 
will find these disciples of Spiritualism far and away 
beyond the ken of their Christian (?) critics in matters 
pertaining to the unfoldment of the higher life ? ' ' 

Of Theosophist teachers present she says: — 

"Among the most noted instructors were Senor and 
Madame de'Ovies, Julian Segunda de'Ovies, delegate to 
America of the Order of Bhagavat-Gita, better known 
as the 'Order of Eighty' the most ancient order of occult 
adepts in the world, who is supreme master of the order, 
Cairo, Egypt. It teaches practical psychology, purity, 
temperance in all things, love for humanity and sincer- 
ity; to know ourselves, that we may attain the perfect 
manhood and womanhood, and approach nearer the cos- 
mic light, of which we are but sparks; to develop the 
divinity within us, that we may heal the sick and com- 
fort the sorrowing, even as did the great psychic, Jesus 
of Nazareth. 

" By meditation and concentration to see visions 
and receive impressions that one may be divinely in- 
spired and guided in all things by wisdom. The Span- 
ish Mahatma de'Ovies teach meditation, concentration, 
psychometry, magnetism and healing art, character- 
reading, hypnotism, clairvoyance, science of breathing, 
science of eating and every other branch of occult phil- 
osophy. Circles for the development of these powers 
are formed after each course of lessons. This science 
dispels the error of blindness, so man can see without 
eyes — Senor de'Ovies can prove this at any time and 
under all conditions. The Mahatma claims that his 
powers are universal, every man and every woman, ex- 
cept an imbecile or degenerate, possesses these occult 
gifts. The Bhagavat Gita has at present over 2,000 
members in the United States. Senor de'Ovies has 
founded several research societies in America, the last 
at Buffalo, N. Y." 

Thus are the ' ' babes in Christ ' ' lured to evil, by 
those who ' ' know not the depths of Satan, ' ' and his 
schemes to entrap them. 



Spiritism — Demonism. 85 

SPIRITISM GROWING. 



A Press Dispatch respecting another Spiritist camp- 
meeting, published in the Toledo Blade % reads as fol- 
lows: — 

" Anderson, Ind., Aug. 2. — Statistics which have 
just been received at the Indiana Spiritualists' state 
camp at Chesterfield, show the growth of Spiritualism 
in the United States during the past four years. It has 
has been very rapid and is represented now by 52 state 
associations with an active membership of 235,000 and 
400 recognized mediums. The states in which the as- 
sociations are located are Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colo- 
rado, Maine, Oregon, California, Florida, Louisiana, 
Vermont, New York and New Hampshire. Spiritual- 
ists claim 2,000,000 believers." 

A FATHER'S DELUSION. 



A Zion's Watch Tower reader, after perusing the 
articles on Spiritism, writes as follows : — 

" After my mother's death my father married a 
woman who was a spirit medium, and has since tried to 
convince me of Spiritism. He has given me, repeated- 
ly, accounts of materializing seances which he has at- 
tended both in his own home and in other places. He 
says he has seen as many as fifteen spirits developed at 
one time, both adults and infants, while the medium 
sat in her cabinet in view of her audience. He says 
that sometimes he has seen a misty cloud appear near 
the ceiling and gradually descend to the floor, taking 
form as it came down, until it stood upon the floor a 
solid, tangible human being, and would clasp his hand. 
The hand felt as tangible in his grasp as my own would 
feel. He says his dead daughters (my sisters) and other 
friends who are dead have thus appeared to him robed 
in pure white. Sometimes they would materialize a 
sparkling lace shawl and hold it up and shake it before 



86 What Say the Scriptures? 

him; they would sit down by his side or in his lap and 
put their arms around his neck and converse with him 
of their heavenly home, its beauties, its lovely flowers, 
etc. , and of his own future, and of their care for him. 
Finally they would say, ' Well, I must go, ' — and the 
hand clasped in his, and which he was holding tightly, 
would begin to sink out of his grasp, the body would 
grow thin until objects across the room could be dis- 
cerned through the almost transparent body; then it 
would disappear, sometimes going down through the 
floor. His father (my grandfather) who was a physi- 
cian in life, he says, has, through mediums, written 
prescriptions for medicines for him, etc. 

' ' My father has told us things which his medium- 
wife has told him — matters about our family — which 
really surprised us, as we knew she had no means of 
knowing except through supernatural agency, but we 
saw by years of observation of Spiritism sufficient of its 
abominations to convince us of its Satanic origin, and 
hence I never had much faith in it, and finally learned 
to abhoi it. And since seeing the light of present 
truth, as we now see it, we realize its wickedness and 
its demon-nature more fully than ever. I have repeat- 
edly seen mediums 'under control,' and have noted 
how fully they are made the victims of the demons who 
possess them at such times — being unaware of their con- 
dition or at least unable to control their words and ac- 
tions. Their facial expression at such times is very 
peculiar. ' ' 

AN EPISCOPAL CLERGYMAN WRITES! — 



"The Watch Tower speaks in several past num- 
bers of Spiritists and mentions Clairaudiant mediums. 
I have been living alone as a bachelor missionary in 
Burma for some years, and ever since my wife and little 
boy fell asleep in '89 and '90, I have been alone: 
and I pursued somewhat an inquiry into animal mag- 
netism with reference to telegraphing thought at a dis- 
:mce and, I am sorry to add, 'transfer of sensation.' 



Spiritism — Demonism. 87 

After practising this (and abhorring Spiritism, tho not 
knowing why, and not connecting the two together) I 
found suddenly one afternoon voices all round me which 
have continued ever since more or less: and I now write 
to you to beseech Jehovah to have mercy on my body 
and make it * the sanctuary of God through the spirit, ' 
taking away any unclean spirit which may inhabit it, 
and giving me grace and power to resist, or flee, or get 
free from, any and every influence, or power, or control, 
that Satan may have over me." 

VIEWS OF A WELLKNOWN EX- SPIRITUALIST. 



Rev. W. H. Clagett, President of the Board of Trus- 
tees of the Texas Presbyterian University, who was once 
a Spiritualist, lectured recently in Association Hall of 
Brooklyn, N. Y., to a large audience. The Brooklyn 
Eagle gives the following report of the lecture: — 

1 i Dr. Clagett said he had not come simply to amuse 
his audience nor to tell them stories. He wanted to go 
deeper than that. 'Frankly, ' he went on, 'I have no hope 
of converting the confirmed Spiritualist. Fortunately, 
or unfortunately, it has been my lot to see a great deal 
of Spiritualism. I was a firm believer in it for years, 
often acting as a medium in private seances. There is 
a deeper interest in this question than many Christians 
think. Spiritualism is one of the greatest powers for 
evil in the world. Most of you will be surprised when 
I tell you that it has between 900,000 and 1,000,000 
followers in the United States. We cannot get rid of 
this incipient evil by denouncing it; we must instruct 
the people. I believe there is such a thing as commun- 
ication between men and spirits. I believe that there 
are real spirits connected with modern Spiritualism. A 
great many people have wondered at the power of Spir- 
itualism to mislead intelligent people. Some of you 
will remember that some years ago Dr. Kettles, the 
superintendent of all the public schools in New York, 
avowed his belief in Spiritualism. It appeals to one of 



88 What Say the Scriptures? 

the strongest feelings in the human heart — our love for 
our dead. Where are these loved ones ? Do they still 
exist? What is the nature of that existence? To the 
man who rejects the Bible no answer comes to these 
questions. All is dark, and as the soul tries to penetrate 
the gloom, it cries out with the most intense longing, 
' Where are you ? ' Satan, in the form of Spiritualism, 
offers to bring the loved one back again so that we can 
hear his voice and actually see his face. ' 

" Then, again, Spiritualism comes to us as a new 
religion. It proposes to be a system of religious phil- 
osophy. It undertakes to solve the question: ' If a man 
die shall he live again ? ' By attacking the soul in this 
subtle and plausible manner it is not strange that Satan 
in the form of Spiritualism leads many astray. . . . 

"Dr. Clagett characterized Spiritualism as alike 
silly and degrading. ' To think, ' he said, ' of a wife 
or mother, even if she could communicate with us on 
earth, going to a woman whom she never knew and with 
whom she would not have associated if she had, and 
telling her the most sacred things — the idea is degrad- 
ing and a dishonor! Spiritualism is a fraud, two-thirds 
of it being devil at second hand and the rest of it devil 
at first hand.' " 

AN EX-SPIRITUALIST AUTHOR' S EXPERIENCES. 



In a book recently published, entitled ' ' The Powers 
of the Air, ' ' the author, formerly a medium, relates 
some strange experiences with spirits. We give his ac- 
count of his experiences with a spirit which professed 
to be the Lord, and which gave him to understand that 
he, the medium, was to be greatly used in converting 
the world; and that he would occupy a very similar po- 
sition to that of the Lord at his first advent, except that 
he would be blessed with marvelous and miraculous 
success. We quote: — 

"I felt happy, very happy, with Jesus at my side, 
as I verily believed. As the writing progressed, I felt 



Spiritism — Demonism. 89 

the more certain that it was true, because the style and 
diction indicated a pure mind and heart." Later on 
the spirit said, "I am your Father and your God. ... 
I am the Almighty, the Creator of all things. In this 
manner I spake to the patriarchs of old — to Adam, to 
Noah, to Abraham, Moses and others." This commun- 
ication caused the medium to tremble with fear. The 
spirit then said, ' ' Be not afraid, ... I am your Maker 
and your Father, and you are my child — my very dear 
child; child by creation and also by redemption; there- 
fore you need not fear. ' ' The spirit then went on to say, 
"I have chosen you to be my second Christ; I have ap- 
pointed Jesus, my son, to instruct you and make you 
wise in all things — to do my will in the great work of 
man's salvation." 

The spirit then instructed his medium to become 
associated with a certain clerical friend as an assistant 
in the great work of saving souls; and said, "As the 
Anglo-Saxon and German races have grown so sensitive 
that spirits can impress their minds, and in many in- 
stances control their bodies, so I have determined to 
introduce a new dispensation, and for this purpose I 
have called you and your friend to open and prepare 
the way for its introduction. Be humble, prayerful and 
faithful, and all will be well. Let me say to you again, 
be humble — humble as a child before God. ' ' The evil 
spirit endeavored to make him believe in ' l the conver- 
sion of the world to God," through his instrumentality, 
and at once, himself being the representative of Christ 
to do the second advent work of saving the world. 
To throw him off his guard it cautioned him, saying: — 

" The evil spirits are all around you. Their abid- 
ingplace, until the judgment, is the air, or atmosphere 
of the earth; and they work in the children of disobe- 
dience by impressing, or infusing, into their minds 
thoughts and desires which are wicked and selfish; and 
also by inflaming their passions, thus leading them often 
to commit the most atrocious deeds. . . . There is in this 



go What Say the Scriptures? 

world a continual conflict, as you are aware, between 
the powers of darkness, so-called, and the powers of 
light . . . The slow progress made by my Gospel in the 
world since my ascension may be inferred from what 
has been said. . . . My beloved servant Judson spent 
many years in heathen lands before a single convert was 
rescued and brought to God." 

The medium thought that none but a good being 
would talk in this way; hence the spirit must be what 
it claimed to be, or else it would be a great deceiver, 
and a very bad being. Still he was troubled with doubts 
about the remarkable communications that he was re- 
ceiving. The spirit then went on to say: — 

" You seem to be in doubt about your calling; you 
need not be for a moment. Launch your little barque 
into the broad ocean of God's infinite love, and you will 
find aid and comfort. The true secret of success in any 
enterprise is to be fired with zeal. You need not fear 
to commence. You now understand the law of control 
in reference to moral forces, which may be brought to 
bear on the children of men. 

" In conclusion, I will say that I design, first, to 
call in the Jews; then afterward the Gentiles. So you 
will first proceed to New York. There you will be aided 
by Mr. Beecher and others, and then proceed to Pales- 
tine, where I will meet you and give you success. 

" While meditating on these things that ' still small 
voice ' came to me again, saying, ' I am the Lord your 
God, and have a work for you to perform. I must call 
in my people, the Jews, preparatory to that great event 
which is soon to transpire, and I have arranged for you 
to go to New York, and there meet Mr. Beecher, who 
will greatly aid you in your work of assembling my 
ancient people at Jerusalem, preparatory to their being 
converted and made meet for the kingdom of heaven. 
You will leave your home unknown to your family, and 
proceed to a place that I will direct you to.' 

" i I am the Judge of all the earth ; I, the Lord, have 
called you to warn all men to flee from the wrath which 



Spiritism — Demonisnt. g i 

is to come. The judgment day is approaching, when 
all men, small and great, shall stand before my throne. 
Therefore be diligent, be faithful, and do as I command 
you, and great shall be your reward. You have left 
those you loved, many of whom are in the bonds of 
iniquity. Now, therefore, fix your mind upon those 
whose conversion you so desire, and while you pray I 
will seal conviction upon their hearts, and they shall 
be converted for your sake, even while you are speaking. ' 

" With emotion deep and overwhelming, I fixed 
my mind upon one for whom I had felt unusual interest. 
I prayed until sobs and tears choked my utterance, when 
that still, small, solemn whisper came to me with dis- 
tinctness again, saying, ■ Your prayer is answered: your 
friend is converted, and is now rejoicing with joy un- 
speakable and full of glory. ' 

' ' i My child, ' said the solemn voice again, ' fix 
your mind upon another, and I w r ill bless again even 
for your sake. ' I commenced then again with the same 
childlike simplicity of prayer as before, fixing my mind 
distinctly on the person I desired converted, and after 
a few moments of earnest pleading I heard again the 
voice, saying, ' Child, thy prayer is heard, and thy 
friend is now happy in my love. ' 

" Thus I continued for many hours, my heart be- 
coming more and more interested in the work, and 
swelling with the love of God, as I continued to fix my 
mind on one after another of those whose souls' salva- 
tion was near and dear to me. At length the solemn 
voice said, ' Have you no other relations and friends on 
whom you can fix your mind in prayer ? ' I replied by 
saying, * I can think of no more. ' l Then, ' said the 
voice, 'fix your mind upon any ungodly man you 
choose, and I wih hear and bless him for your sake. ' 

" With tearful eyes I then renewed my prayer, fix- 
ing my mind upon one and then another of those whom 
I knew to be worst in wickedness. At the end of each 
petition the answer came: ' Your petition is heard, and 
he for whom you supplicated is among the redeemed. ' 
This continued perhaps an hour longer, when, growing 



92 What Say the Scriptures f 

weary from exhaustion and fatigue, I retired and slept 
as sweetly as a child upon the bosom of its mother. 

' ' As the soft light of morn stole into my window, 
I heard again the still, small voice, saying, ' Arise, my 
child, and hear the good news. Those for whom you 
prayed are happy in my love, are rejoicing in hope and 
have heard of your mission, and are coming to rejoice 
with you and bid you God-speed.' 

' i Having arranged my toilet and kindled the fire, 
I ordered breakfast to be served in my room. When 
seated at the table, and about to commence my repast, 
the voice said in the kindest and sweetest manner, 'You 
need feel no embarrassment in my presence; have I not 
always been present with you ? do I not know your 
every thought, your every word, and your every deed ? 
Ask the blessing on your repast in your usual way, just 
as if I were not personally present, for tho I am not 
present everywhere in person, yet I am present every- 
where in my omnipotent power and wisdom. ' 

" The repast being over, the voice of the Almighty, 
as I believed, said ' This day will be a day to this place 
such as they never experienced before. God is in this 
place, and they know it not. I will now whisper to 
every man's mind, as I whispered to you in the still 
small voice, saying, c Prepare to meet thy God in judg- 
ment,' and, hearing this, they will assemble in two dif- 
ferent churches for prayer; at the same time the con- 
verted ones for whom you prayed in the night will have 
arrived in the place, and will join in the general rejoic- 
ing, and crying for mercy, and thus the wave of salva- 
tion, so astonishingly begun in this place, shall roll over 
the whole earth, because that day is approaching, that 
great and terrible day, when all men shall receive ac- 
cording to the deeds done in the body. In the mean- 
time you may go up and call on Mr. A , who is my 

servant, and a godly man. You will find him at his 
church preparatory to the great assembling of people. ' 

' \ I was so moved by this good news, and the pro- 
mise of salvation to such multitudes of perishing souls, 
that tears flowed freely from my eyes. In this condi- 



Spiritism — Demonism . 93 

tion of mind, I passed down the main entrance of the 
hotel to the street. Looking around, I saw no unusual 
stir; but, thinking that God worked silently with every 
heart, I passed on with the certain expectation that I 
should find the minister at the church designated, and 
many assembled for worship. 

' ; On arriving at the church, I found, to my aston- 
ishment, the doors closed, and not a single person in or 
about the building. I soon found the minister at his 
residence, and to my still greater astonishment he in- 
formed me that there was to be no meeting there that 
day. I returned to the hotel, expecting that by this 
time those for whom I prayed, and who, I believed, 
were rejoicing in a conscious hope of sins forgiven, had 
arrived, but in that, again, was sorely disappointed. 

" Passing up to my room, I inquired of the Lord 
why this strange failure. To which the voice replied 
in the same distinct and well-defined whisper, ' The 
failure is caused by the mischievous conduct of wicked 
spirits, who have of late been whispering in the ears 
of the people, which has confused them, and they do 
not recognize in my whisper the still small voice of the 
Almighty. ' 

" ' But,' said I, ' what will become of thy great 
name ? ' 

11 The voice replied by saying, ' I will take all re- 
membrance of this failure from their minds; and they 
shall know that I am the Lord; that with me there is 
no variableness or shadow of turning. But you, my 
child, will proceed on your mission of calling in the 
Jews, the same as though this seeming failure had not 
occurred. ' 

11 ' But,' said I, in reply, ' I have not the where- 
withal to convey me to New York. ' 

" ' Yes, my child, but I have provided against all 
contingencies of that kind by impressing a wealthy man 
in the city of New York to telegraph the bank in this 
place to furnish you all necessary funds. Be therefore 
not faithless, but believe. J 

"This calmed my mind, reassured my confidence, 



94 What Say the Scriptures? 

and I immediately left for the bank. Stepping up to 
the counter, I inquired if a certain man, calling him by 
name, now living in New York, had telegraphed to this 
bank to place money to my credit. The banker assured 
me that no telegram had been received. 

' ' Again I inquired the cause of the failure. The 
same mysterious voice replied by saying, ' The cause of 
this failure is the same that produced the others; but,' 
continued the voice, ' I am the Almighty. I have power 
to kill and make alive, arid those who have interfered 
with my purposes I will judge; therefore rest in hope, 
and all shall be made right. 5 

"I yet had confidences in my senses. I was certain 
that I had heard the voice, and I could not force my- 
self to believe that any creature above or beneath could 
be found who would dare to personify or assume to be 
the Almighty himself. I also thought back over the 
communications I had received. I reminded myself of 
the deep-toned piety which pervaded them, and of the 
kind assurances given me; and, summing it all up, I 
felt deeply impressed that I could not be deceived. 

" While thus meditating, the voice uttered these 
words, ' Return to your home and all will be well. ' 
Obedient to the command, I immediately set out for the 
place of my former residence. 

"My sudden disappearance from home had caused 
no small stir among the friends and relatives, but my 
presence soon reassured them. How little, thought I, 
did they understand the real cause of my absence. " 

The medium finally reached the conclusion that he 
had been deceived by evil spirits. He continues: — 

" The reader might suppose that the would-be Di- 
vine intelligence who had followed me so long and had 
so grossly deceived me would, upon having been dis- 
covered to be but devils clothed as angels of light, have 
left me, never to appear again. But this was not the 
case. So far as ability to impress my mind with their 
thought was concerned, I found that they possessed 
even more power, and that it was every day increasing. 



Spiritism — Demonism. 95 

[This is a part of the danger: the will which at first is 
strong and well able to resist such approaches gradually 
loses its power and becomes weaker each time it yields.] 

" As soon as it was really apparent that I had been 
deceived, I sank into the very grave of disappointment. 
My hopes, which had been raised up to the seventh 
heaven, were dashed down to the lowest pit. My in- 
visible deceiver for several days continued to flatter me 
at times that all was well — that God was as really in the 
darkness of this disappointment as in the light of the 
brightest hopes of former days." 

At last becoming fully convinced of the deceitf ulness 
of these communicating spirits, he refused to be under 
their control any longer. They then, in answer to the 
subjoined questions, made the following confession and 
admissions: — 

" You were first led into a belief that Spiritualism 
was but the harbinger of the Millennial glory by the 
few first communications. They were certainly grand, 
and were given with the express design of leading you 
to believe they were from Jesus Christ and God himself. 
You ought to have suspected this. All hooks are baited 
with a very gilded bait. 

" Question: Are not the doctrines taught generally 
by Spiritualists denominated in the Scripture the doc- 
trines of devils or demons ? 

" Answer: Yes, they are, in very deed, the doctrines 
of devils or demons, because they generally reject the 
teachings of Jesus Christ and his apostles and followers. 
A. J. D. was inspired to my certain knowledge by the 
prince of demons, or, in other words, the most intel- 
lectual demon belonging to the powers of the air. Hfe 
1 Harmonial Philosophy ' was all written under inspira- 
tion of demoniac influence. There is no Jesus Christ, 
or any other doctrines taught by Jesus in his works — 
they are Christless or Antichrist. . . . Spiritualism was 
conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity. It is & 



96 What Say the Scriptures? 

dead carcass — a carcass that will be a stench to the good 
of the whole earth. 

" Q. : But do you never expect to be better? 

"A. : Never. We are the debris of God's moral 
creation, cast off as far as we know only to be destroyed. 

"Q. : But do not the pious dead surround those 
who are still in the body as guardians from the influ- 
ences of evil ? 

"A. : They are never seen by us, if they do. We 
see nothing around the pious, any more than around 
the wicked. But we are often around them ourselves, 
infusing into their minds some infidel or atheistic 
thought, to see how they will receive it. We take delight 
in disturbing and irritating them, just as we do you. 

" Q. : How do the inhabitants of your world most- 
ly spend their time ? 

U A. : We spend the time mostly, since the disco- 
very of the mediumistic communications, in developing 
mediums; in making psychological experiments with 
them, and in communicating through them. 

" Q. : Do you not think that good spirits develop 
mediums and communicate through them as well as 
yourselves? 

" A.: I think not: we think we are warranted in 
the conclusion that no pious dead, nor the spirits of just 
men made perfect, nor angels have anything to do with 
controlling mediums at the present day. 

" These spirit manifestations are clearly prophesied 
of by the Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians: 'And then 
shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall con- 
sume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy 
with the brightness of his coming; even him whose com- 
ing is after the working of Satan, with all power and 
signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of 
unrighteousness in them that perish; because they re- 
ceived not the love of the truth, that they might be 
saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong 
delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they might 
be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure 
in unrighteousness. ' This passage sets forth the signs 



Spiritism — Demonism. 97 

of these times so clearly that all the righteous or pious 
can clearly understand. 

" We have been provoked to reveal to you the fact 
that all the revelations through mediums to the effect 
that all men are progressing to a state of holiness and 
happiness are false, totally and absolutely false. We 
have as good an opportunity to know the facts connect- 
ed with all the modern revelations as any spirits can 
know in this world, and we certainly know that they 
are not of God, but from spirits, some of them guilty 
of greater abuses, if it were possible to inflict any 
greater, than we have inflicted upon you. 

" You ask us how we know that modern spiritual 
demonstrations are not of God? We answer that we 
know it from the following reasons: These spirit demon- 
strations are made by spirits who hate God, and have 
no fellowship with that which is good, . . . they uni- 
versally reject the Bible as the Word of God, denounc- 
ing it as a fable and unworthy of belief. All the revela- 
tions yet made by spirit manifestations have not so much 
Gospel truth in them as has yet resulted in the regenera- 
tion of one soul, in the sense that Jesus Christ taught 
regeneration. The revelations of these spirits are just 
what you might expect from beings who have not the 
love of God in them. 

[Here we have an exemplification of our Lord's 
words, " If Satan cast out Satan he is divided against 
himself; how shall then his kingdom stand ? " (Matt. 
12: 26; Mark 3: 23-27.) Similarly the cures done by 
Spiritists, Theosophists and Christian Scientists we be- 
lieve are evidences that Satan's kingdom is being hard 
pressed and is soon to fall before our King Immanuel.] 

" Q. : The Bible speaks of the prince of the power of 
the air, or in the air; what may we understand by this ? 

"Spirit: You will understand that the prince is the 
name of the ruling spirit of evil. There are many 
spirits in the air who are rulers, just as Indian chiefs 
rule the tribes to which they belong. . 7 



98 What Say the Scriptures? 

" Q. : To what extent have the powers of the air do- 
minion and rule over the children of men?" 

1 'A. : They have the power to produce lifelike images 
in the minds of impressible mediums. This is often 
understood by them to be an actual sight of a real ob- 
ject. This leads to a great variety of delusions. 

" Those who are called leaders of Spiritualism, and 
who know the fallacy of those impressions, allow the 
deceptions to go on, and are therefore participators in 
the swindle. This stamps them with infamy. The 
spirits have the power of using the human body, with 
all its organs aud faculties. This is done in the case of 
trance speakers and personating mediums. Perhaps 
they enter the body by means ot electrical and galvanic 
influences, and, having entered, they use the vocal or- 
gans. 

"They also possess power to move ponderous ob- 
jects, such as tables, chairs, etc. This is generally ac- 
complished by the agency of scores and hundreds of the 
invisible workers. ' ' 

This writer further explains: — 

"They could imitate the manner of speech pe- 
culiar to my relatives and acquaintances, and so exactly 
did they give the particular intonation and inflections 
of voice, that I would have been compelled to believe 
the imitation to be the real had they not also imitated 
the voices of some whom I knew to be living. Upon 
one occasion that occurs particularly to my mind, the 
voice, style of address, and intonation were so exactly 
personified that for the moment I felt positive that the 
gentleman and lady represented had deceased, and that 
their disembodied spirits were before me. But when I 
knew by the evidences of my physical senses that it was 
not the case, I was then convinced that the spirits were 
presenting assumed characters. 

"That the reader may be fortified at every point, 
and never be drawn into the belief that any communi- 
cation from the spirit world can in any sense be from 
Hod (though it may breathe what seems like heaven it- 



Spiritism — Demonism. 99 

self, and be characterized by lofty sentiment, and the 
most elegant phraseology, and classic purity of style), 
let him remember that if such are given through your- 
self as a medium, or through any other medium, it will 
only be but the prelude or introduction to something 
monstrous and absurd. All my experiences with these 
beings who surround us in the air sum up this distinct 
conclusion: that they delight in evil as their chief object, 
and especially that branch of evil called deception. If 
any one thing pleases them more than any other, it is 
to make those in the earth-life believe the most mon- 
strous and absurd theories. I would exhort the reader, 
as did the Apostle Paul, in these words: 'Though we, 
or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto 
you, let him be accursed. ' 

"The most subtle method which these powers of the 
air use to induce belief in their monstrous absurdities 
consists in making friendly allusions to Jesus Christ and 
his gospel, and in speaking very highly of its doctrines ; 
they may even give a grand dissertation upon one of 
them, and in the meantime weave into the framework 
of this dissertation a subtle philosophy which would 
undermine the consistency of the whole, and render it 
delusive." 

How evident it is from the foregoing that God's 
people need more and more to rely upon their Father's 
Word, and not upon feelings and impressions and ' i voic- 
es" which generally, if not always, deceive. While the 
spirit of the Truth is to be sought, and not merely its 
letter, yet the careful study of the letter of God's Word 
is needful, together with an honesty of heart that de- 
lights to know and do the will of the Lord, —at any cost, 
at any sacrifice of prejudice, human preference, etc. 

The Word of God is sufficient that the man of God 
may be thoroughly furnished. — 2 Tim. 3: 16, 17. 

" Sanctify them through thy truth: thy Word is 
truth." — John 17: 17. 



loo What Say the Scriptures? 

TAKE A LESSON FROM THE IVY. 



THE following beautiful verses, by Charles Mackay, well 
illustrate the fact that there can be no proper Christian 
growth in the darkness of sin, superstition and Satanic influ- 
ence; — that the True Light and the inspired Word through which 
it reaches us are absolutely necessary to our proper development. 

THE Ivy in a dungeon grew, 
Unfed by rain, uncheered by dew, 
Its pallid leaflets only drank 
Cave moisture foul, or odors dank. 

But through the dungeon grating high 
There fell a sunbeam from the sky, 
It slept upon the grateful floor 
In silent gladness evermore. 

The Ivy felt a tremor shoot 
Through all its fibres to the root, 
It felt the light, it saw the ray, 
It longed to blossom into day. 

It grew, it crept, it pushed, it clomb, 
Long had the darkness been its home; 
For well it knew, though veiled in night, 
The goodness and the joy of light. 

It reached the beam, it thrilled, it curled, 
It blessed the warmth that cheers the world; 
It grew towards the dungeon bars, 
It looked upon the moon and stars. 

Upon that solitary place 
Its verdure threw adorning grace, 
The mating birds became its guests, 
And sang its praises from their nests. 

By rains and dews and sunshine fed, 
Upon the outer wall it spread, 
And in the day beam roaming free, 
It grew into a stately tree. 

Would' st know the moral of the rhvme? 
Behold the heavenly light and climb. 
To every dungeon comes a ray 
Of God r s illimitable day. 



THE SPIRITS IN PRISON. 

" THOSE ANGELS WHICH KEPT NOT THEIR 

FIRST ESTATE." 

"The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were 
fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. . . . 
And they bare children to them; the same became mighty men, 
which were of old, men of renown. " — Gen. 6:2, 4. 

6 |HE SCRIPTURES not only point us to the future 
JL age and call the spiritual government of Christ 
which shall then exist a "new heavens," and earthly 
society and institutions then to be established a "new 
earth, ' ' but similarly the Scriptures represent the present 
spiritual rulership (under Satan, "the prince of this 
world "), with the earthly institutions under it, as "the 
present evil world," dispensation or epoch.* Moreover, 
we are informed that the present dominion of evil has 
not always existed, but that it was preceded by a still 
different dispensation or epoch, spoken of as "the world 
'that was " before the flood, which also had a heavens, 
or spiritual ruling power, and an earth, or condition of 
men subject to that spiritual dominion. 

The three "worlds" mentioned by Peter (2 Pet. 3:6, 
7, 13) designate these three great epochs of time. In 
each God's plan with reference to men has a distinct 
and separate outline, yet each is but a part of the one 
great plan which, when complete, will exhibit the divine 

* See Millennial Dawn, Vol. i., Chap. 4. (101) 



io2 What Say the Scriptures? 

wisdom, justice, love and power, to the wonder and ad- 
miration of all his creatures. 

Since that first ' l world ' ' (or order of things) passed 
away at the time of the flood, it follows that it must 
have been a different order from the present, and hence 
that the prince of this present evil world was not the 
prince of that epoch which preceded this, however wide- 
ly Satan's influence was then exerted. 

Several Scriptures throw light on God's dealings 
during that first dispensation, and give clearer insight 
into his plan as a whole. The thought suggested by 
these is that the first " world (the dispensation before 
the flood) was under the supervision and special minis- 
tration of certain holy angels who were permitted to do 
what they could and desired to do to rule and recover 
the fallen race which, because of sin, needed a govern- 
ment other than its own. 

That angels were the rulers of that epoch is not 
only indicated by all references to that period, but may 
be reasonably inferred from the Apostle's remark when 
contrasting the present dispensation with the past one 
and the future one. He endeavors to show both the 
righteousness and the enduring character of the future 
rulership of the world, saying, "The world to come 
hath he not put in subjection to the angels." No, it is 
put under the control of our Lord Jesus and his joint- 
heirs, and hence it shall not only be more righteous than 
the present rule of Satan, but it shall be more successful 
than was the previous rule by the angels. — Heb. 2:2, 5. 

In their original estate all the angels, it seems, pos- 
sessed the ability to appear in earthly forms. Thus, 
Satan appeared to Eve as a serpent, or acting through a 
serpent. Other angels frequently appeared as men, thus 



Spirits in Prison. 103 

performing their ministry, appearing or disappearing, 
as the work demanded. 

It was at this time, it seems, that the fall of some 
of the angels occurred. It is a common supposition, 
tho we think without foundation, that the fall of Satan's 
associates, the fallen angels, occurred before man's crea- 
tion. We are told that Satan was a murderer (man- 
killer) from the beginning. (Jno. 8:44.) Certainly not 
the beginning of his own existence, for every creation 
coming from God's hand is perfect; nor can we think 
any other beginning referred to than man's beginning, 
in Eden. But, so far as we are informed, he was then 
alone and had no followers or angels. 

The ambition of Satan, one of the mighty angels, 
to become a ruler, seems to have developed as he beheld 
the first human pair with their procreative powers, and 
the grand possibilities of an extended dominion through 
their posterity. He probably reasoned that, if he could 
obtain the control of this man he would have the do- 
minion over all his offspring, and be in power and in- 
fluence above others — a rival of Jehovah himself; and 
his growing ambition said, ' ' I will be like the Most 
High." — Isa. 14 : 14. 

Successful in contaminating the stream at its source, 
Satan gained a great influence over the race; but his 
power over them was limited because of the competition 
of the great company of angels who, as guardians, in- 
structed and ruled mankind for a time in harmony with 
the will of God. But man's corruption was contagious, 
and eventually some of these angelic rulers fell victims 
to the plague of sin, and left their own habitation, or 
condition as spiritual beings, keeping not their first or 
original estate. They misused the powers which they 



104 What Say the Scriptures? 

possessed, of assuming a human form, and became of 
a reprobate and licentious mind, copying after degen- 
erate man, and started a new race of men in the world, 
as our text affirms. — Gen. 6:2-4. 

[This Scripture is applied by some to two classes 
of men. One class, more righteous than the other, are 
supposed to be here called "sons of God." But such 
a position is untenable; for it is not a sin for one man 
to take for a wife another man's daughter. Marriage 
among men is never in the Scriptures condemned as 
sinful. On the contrary, it was ordained of God, and 
has always had his sanction. (Gen. 2:24; Heb. 13:4.) 
Our Lord attested his approval by his presence at the 
marriage in Cana. (Jno. 2:1-11.) Neither is the propa- 
gation of the race, under proper conditions, condemned 
as sinful. God commanded it, that the earth might be 
filled with a race of beings generated from one pair, and 
in order that subsequently the redemption of the race 
might be secured by the obedience and sacrifice of one 
—Christ. (Gen. 1:28; Rom. 5:19.) However, those to 
whom the Lord has granted a knowledge of his truth 
sometimes forego marriage, as they deny themselves 
many other earthly rights and privileges ' ' for the King- 
dom of Heaven's sake" (Matt. 19:12), if they consider 
that thereby a more efficient service may be rendered to 
the Lord. 

Again, if it were merely a union of two classes of 
the same race, why should the offspring be specially 
called ' ' men of renown f \ J If the righteous and the 
wicked marry to-day, are their children therefore giants 
or mightier or more renowned men? Surely not!] 

After a deterioration of several hundred years, man- 
kind had lost much of the original vigor and perfection 



Spirits in Prison. 105 

of mind and body; but with the angels it was different: 
their powers were still perfect and unimpaired. Hence 
it is clear that their children would partake of that vi- 
tality and much more resemble the first perfect man 
than those around them, among whom they would be 
giants both in physical and mental strength. 

Those angels which kept not their first condition, 
but sought the level of sinful men, and left their own 
habitation, or spiritual condition, God placed in age-last- 
ing chains. That is, God restrained or limited their 
powers, taking from them the power and privilege of 
appearing in an earthly form, human or other. Hence, 
tho we know that they did thus appear before the flood, 
there is not one instance recorded in which they have 
been able to free themselves from this restraint or chain 
since. On the contrary, the angels who left not their 
first estate are not so restrained, and have appeared fre- 
quently as men, as a flame of fire, as a pillar of cloud, 
etc., as recorded in both the Old and New Testament 
Scriptures. 

Having become depraved in their tastes, and being 
given over to a reprobate mind, and debarred from all 
association with God and his works and plan, these fal- 
len angels have no longer any pleasure in things on the 
spiritual plane, but crave association with depraved 
mankind and a participation with men in sin. How 
wise and kind the Almighty hand which has restrained 
their power and influence over men by preventing their 
personal intercourse! Now, they may indeed enter and 
act through any who invite their companionship, as 
spirit mediums, but no more can they do. Thus far 
shalt thou go, saith the Almighty, but no further. This 
is the explanation of what is known as Spiritism. 



io6 What Say the Scriptures? 

Some of this class, possessed by devils, our Lord 
and his disciples met in their ministry. Out of one he 
cast a legion of devils* (Mark 5:1-15.) Anxious in some 
manner to become associated with humanity, yet unable 
to assume human form because restrained, when they 
found a man willing to have such company, a legion 
crowded into him, thereby making him a maniac. Even 
when they perceived that the Lord would release the 
man from their possession, they in despair requested as 
a favor that they might be permitted to inhabit and use 
the bodies of a herd of swine near by. But the swine 
were crazed thereby, and madly rushed into the sea. 

Jude (6, 7) gives conclusive evidence on the sub- 
ject, and clearly shows the nature of the sin for which 
the fallen angels were condemned and restrained, when, 
after mentioning the angels who sinned, he says, "Even 
as Sodom and Gommorrah, . . . in like manner giving 
themselves over to fornication and going after strange 
flesh." That God prohibits any mixture or blending 
of natures, and designs that each should keep its own 
original or first estate is clearly taught by this passage 
and also by Lev. 18:23; 20:15, 16. And that our race 
as it exists to-day, coming through Noah, is purely 
Adamic stock, and contains no mixture, is shown by 
the expression — " These are the generations of Noah: 
Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation, ' ' — i. e. , 
not contaminated in the manner before described. — 
Gen. 6 : 9. 

Glancing back, then, we see the first epoch under 
angelic control, the inability of those angels to lift man 
out of his fallen condition, and the debasing influence 
of man's continued degradation upon some of those 
angels. The angels were utterly unable to accomplish 



Spirits in Prison. 107 

the great work of man's recovery. Doubtless they were 
anxious to do it, for they sang and shouted for joy at 
his creation. God let them try it, and it was doubtless 
part of their education, trial and discipline, but they 
failed. Some joined the ranks of evil, while the rest 
stood by powerless to arrest the terrible course of sin. 
Later we find the good angels still interested, desiring 
to look into the plan which God has since been working 
out through Christ, and ever ready to do his bidding in 
our service. (1 Pet. 1: 12.) Thus was proven to both 
men and angels the futility of angelic power to save men. 

In the beginning of "this present evil world," 
notwithstanding Noah's endeavor to serve God and to 
teach his posterity to follow his example, and the exhi- 
bition of God's judgment in the deluge, the tendency 
was still downward; and soon the wickedness of Sodom 
brought its destruction. Mankind were bent on an evil 
course, and God permitted them to take it. Then the 
ministration of angels, except to the few of God's chil- 
dren, was withdrawn; and now, instead of sending 
heavenly messengers to declare to us his will, he has 
given us his Word, ' ' that the man of God may be 
thoroughly furnished [thereby] unto all good works. ' ' 
— 2 Tim. 3: 16, 17. 

Ever since the fall, God's plan has been gradually 
and quietly developing, and in due time will bear abund- 
ant fruit unto eternal life; and eventually it will be de- 
monstrated to all his creatures that God's plan is the 
only one which could accomplish the great work. It 
selects and tests first of all, the l ' little flock, ' ' the Royal 
Priesthood, and then reaches out to lift up and restore 
all others willing to accept life everlasting upon God's 
conditions. 



io8 What Say the Scriptures? 



"The entrance of thy Word giveth light" — Psa. 119:130. 

IF "WE knew that 'neath the snow-flakes, 
O'er the wintry landscape strewn, 
Joyous buds of Spring were swelling 

To dispel the Winter's gloom, 
Could the season's darksome shadows 

That along our pathway lie 
E'er obscure the beams of brightness 
That betoken Summer's nigh ? 

If we knew that every shadow 

Heralds but the coming light, 
That the sunshine seems the brighter 

When compared with shades of night, 
Would the troubles that oppress us, 

Making mind and spirit sore, 
Be as now so soul-distressing ? 

Could we not endure the more? 

Tho to-day the soil be thirsty, 

'Tis the morrow brings the rain; 
And the showers so refreshing 

Bid the flowers live again. 
So it is with human sorrow, 

Parched with trouble's fiercest glow; 
Leading to — though hard the lesson — 

Joys we else could never know. 

Let us humbly learn the lesson 

Taught by landscape, shower ana tomb. 
That tho skies be overshadowed, 

Sunbeams may disperse the gloom; 
For no matter what the sorrows 

That may hide the sun to-day, 
Slill behind the clouds, concealing, 

Shines his warmest, brightest ray. 

— A. J. MORIWS. 



PREACHING TO 
"SPIRITS IN PRISON." 



"Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the un- 
just, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the 
flesh but quickened in the spirit. By which also [in addition 
to this work done for us] he preached to the spirits in prison; 
which sometime [before] were disobedient, when once the long- 
suffering of God waited in the days of Noah."— 1 Pet. 3: 18-20. 
See Diaglott, footnote. 



^SA 



SATISFACTORY interpretation of this Scripture 
yJty_^ has long been sought, and but few have found 
a solution perfectly consistent and satisfying even to 
themselves. But in view of the truth gleaned from the 
suggestions of the preceding article, the above statements 
of the Apostle Peter become luminous. 

The two views of this passage commonly held we 
state first, and then give our own view of it. 

The most common view is, that during the time 
that Jesus was entombed he was off on a missionary 
tour preaching to the antediluvian sinners who were 
suffering torture in a supposed place called hell. 

If its advocates would consider it, they would find, 
that their interpretation favors a view of future proba- 
tion for the antediluvians, a thing which they strenu- 
ously oppose. For if Christ preached to them it must 
have been for some purpose. Surely it was not merely 
to mock them. Consequently he must have preached a 
message of hope — a part of his blessed "good tidings 
of great joy." And if there is a future for the antedi- 

(109) 



no What Say the Scriptures? 

luvians, why not accept our position as correct— that in 
Christ u all the families of the earth shall be blessed?" 

This is the objection which consistency would urge 
against this view, from the standpoint of those who 
hold it. But if we view it from the Scriptural stand- 
point, and with the correct idea of death and " hell," 
we must reason that if Jesus were really dead during 
those three days, as the Apostles declare, then he could 
do no declaiming; for " the dead know not any thing" 
(Eccl. 9:5), and " there is no work, nor device, nor 
knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave." (Eccl. 9: 10.) 
Second, If Jesus had been an exception to the rule, and 
could have preached, the antediluvians could not have 
heard; for certainly they have no wisdom, nor knowl- 
edge, in the grave. Hence this view is found generally 
unsatisfactory and as well unscriptural.* 

The second view, and the one which seemed most 
reasonable to us until the considerations of the preced- 
ing article threw light upon this scripture also, is to refer 
the preaching to that which Noah did under the direc- 
tion of the spirit of God to the antediluvians, who at 
this time were imprisoned in the great prison-house, the 
tomb. The objection to this view is, that the preaching 
was not to men, nor to the spirits of men, but to ' 'spirits, ' ' 
spirit beings; and the preaching was not done by Noah, 
nor by the spirit of God, nor before the flood, but after 
they had been chained. And the preaching, we hold, 
was in pantomime — by the death and resurrection of 
our Lord. 

It seems very clear, therefore, that the spirits are 

those spirit beings who were disobedient during the days 

of Noah, and whom God therefore imprisoned or re- 

* See ' 'What Say the Scriptures about Hell ?' ' —advertising page, 



Spirits in Prison, in 

strained from some of their former liberties and privi- 
leges, even ' 'those angels who kept not their own prin- 
cipality, but left their own habitation [or normal con- 
dition] . He has kept them in perpetual chains [re- 
straints] , under thick darkness, for the judgment of the 
great day." — Jude 6, Diaglott. 

This interpretation seems to meet all the circum- 
stances of the case thus far. Now we inquire, In what 
way could oui Lord preach to those spirits during the 
time he was dead? We answer that it is not so stated. 
It was by the facts that he preached, as we sometimes 
say, "actions speak louder than words. " It was by his 
sufferings, death and resurrection that the preaching 
was done. Thus, as Jesus went from step to step in his 
work, his course was preaching a good sermon to those 
angels who once had been placed in control of man, and 
had themselves fallen, instead of lifting up mankind. 
In Jesus they saw exemplified obedience even unto 
death, and its reward — resurrection to spiritual being of 
the divine nature. Such was the great text; and theles- 
son from it is stated by the Apostle ( i Pet. 3:22), viz. , that 
Jesus is now highly exalted and has been given a name 
(title) above every name; that he is "gone into heaven, 
and is at the right hand of God [the position of highest 
favor] , angels and authorities and powers being made 
subject to him." They knew Jesus before he left the 
glory of the heavenly condition and became a man. 
They knew the object of his self-sacrifice as a man. They 
saw him obedient even unto death, and then that his 
high exaltation came as a reward. (Phil. 2:9.) They 
must have felt keenly their loss through disobedience, 
being cut off from communion with God, restrained as 
unworthy of former liberty and communion with the 



ii2 What Say the Scriptures? 

purer minded of mankind, and their own future an un- 
solved mystery. We can but imagine that sorrow and 
chagrin filled their hearts, as they contrasted their course 
of disobedience and its unhappy results, with our Lord's 
obedient course and its grand results. We can fancy at 
least some of them saying, Would that we had realized 
before, as fully as we do now, the wide contrast between 
the results of obedience and disobedience. Would that 
we might have another trial: with our increased knowl- 
edge, our course would be very different. 

A clear distinction should be borne in mind, as be- 
tween Satan and these angels. Satan evidently sinned 
against great light, so that infinite wisdom finds no place 
to do more for him, and his ultimate destruction is 
clearly predicted. — Heb. 2: 14. 

But did not the Lord, in Matt. 25:41, declare eternal 
torment to be the punishment awaiting these fallen 
spirit beings? No: this scripture cannot be used as an 
argument against a hope for a probation for the bound 
or imprisoned spirits; for though, by force of circum- 
stances and restraint from any other service, they are 
now Satan's angels — messengers or servants — yet they 
may not always continue such, if an opportunity be 
granted them to return to God's service and be angels 
of God. This passage relates to the 6 i lake of fire ' ' or 
destruction (Rev. 20: 10),* into which, at the close of 
the Millennial age, are to be cast all who are out of 
harmony with God. Satan will be of those cast into 
that everlasting destruction, and with him all who do 
unrighteousness or have pleasure therein; — all of whom, 
angelic spirits or men on his side, are reckoned to be his 
angels or messengers. All evil-doers shall be cut off from 

* See "What Say the Scriptures about Hell?" 



Spirits in Prison. t*3 

life. To cut off such, and such only, was God's plan 
from the beginning. The wilfully wicked and not the 
merely ignorant, mislead, blinded or deceived are meant 
when it is said, "All the wicked will God destroy" 

THE PROBATION OF ANGELS. 



Will those " spirits in prison," " those angels 
which kept not their first estate, ' ' and who received such 
a powerful though silent testimony and lesson from the 
ministry, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, ever 
have an opportunity to profit by those lessons ? Will 
they ever have an opportunity to repent of their sin, 
leave Satan's service and return to loyalty to God? 

If at first we thought the Scriptures were silent on 
the subject, we have found that to be a mistake; and 
when God speaks we may reasonably conclude there is 
something profitable for us to hear. Hence, let us give 
ear that we may learn whatever our Father deems ex- 
pedient to communicate. 

Jude (verse 6) informs us that those angels which 
committed fornication and went after strange flesh, 
' ' also, " "in like manner, ' ' to the Sodomites (verse 7), 
God is keeping under restraint (as a penalty or punish- 
ment) ' ' unto [or until] the judgment of the great day. ' ' 
The "great day " is the Millennial Day, and mankind 
is also waiting for this judgment (krisis — trial). The 
Apostle Peter's testimony is in harmony (2 Pet. 2:4); 
and St. Paul settles the matter that these fallen and now 
imprisoned spirit beings, as well as mankind, will have 
a trial under the reign of Christ and the Church, "the 
Kingdom of God" in exalted power. Speaking of the 
impropriety of the saints appealing to earthly Courts of 

8 



ii4 What Say the Scriptures ? 

Justice for adjustment of difficulties between themselves, 
he says, — " Do you not know that the saints shall judge 
the world ? . . . Know ye not that we shall judge angels V ' 
— i Cor. 6 : 1-4. 

The Greek word here rendered " judge, " is krino y 
of the same root as krisis, rendered " judgment" in 
Jude 7, and signifies, to govern, to test ; — to mete out to 
each individual blessings or stripes, according to the 
merit of his course when brought fully into the light of 
truth, and under all the blessings of the reign of Christ. 
Thus it is seen that it will be part of the work of the 
Christ to rule over and direct both human and angelic 
sinners — " to judge the world " of fallen men, now re- 
strained in death, from which they have been redeemed, 
and also to judge fallen angels, spirits, restrained alive 
until this judgment or trial of the Great Millennial Day, 
when the Church under the headship of her Lord shall 
try their cause also, giving everlasting life and favor to 
those who shall then prove themselves worthy of it, and 
everlasting destruction to those proved under full light 
and opportunity to be unworthy. 

Besides these references to the subject, we find fre- 
quent references to a work Christ is to do in subjecting 
heavenly, or spiritual, as well as human powers, after 
the Church has been selected and the work of judging 
and blessing is commenced. For instance, we read 
(Eph. 1:10) "In the dispensation of the fulness of 
times, to reestablish [under God's dominion and law] 
all things in Christ [the disordered things] that are in 
heaven [spiritual] and on earth [human] in him." — 
Douay translation. Again, "In him it hath well pleased 
the Father that all fulness should dwell, and through 
him to reconcile all things unto himself, making peace 



Spirits in Prison. 115 

by the blood of his cross, both as to the things on earth, 
and the things in heaven" — earthly and spiritual trans- 
gressors. — Col. 1 : 20. — Douay. 

In Eph. 3:8-10, it is shown that the length and 
breadth of God's redemptive plan has been hidden by 
God until the Gospel age, when the apostles were com- 
missioned to declare to men the conditions upon which 
they might become sharers with Christ in the execution 
of God's loving plan; and the intent is, ultimately, to 
have all the heavenly or spiritual beings know, through 
the instrumentality of the Church, the boundless wealth 
that is in God's great gift — his Son — and the different 
methods and steps his wisdom marked out for all his 
creatures. We quote the passage from the Diaglott 
translation : — 

"To me, the very lowest of the saints, was this 
favor given — to announce among nations the glad tid- 
ings — the boundless wealth of the Anointed One: even to 
enlighten all as to what is the [method of] administra- 
tion [or operation] of that secret [plan] which has been 
concealed from the ages by that God who created all 
things; in order that now [henceforth] may be made 
known to governments and the authorities in the heaven- 
lies, through [the instrumentality of] the congregation 
[the Church] the much diversified wisdom of God, accord- 
ing to a plan of the ages, . . . which he purposed in 
Christ Jesus our Lord." 

It would appear, then, that God's bountiful plan 
and diversified wisdom contain something of interest 
to the angels, and, if of interest to any, of special in- 
terest to those confined, or restrained, and awaiting a 
trial in the judgment of the great Millennial day. They 
see the saints and seek to look into things revealed by 



n6 What Say the Scriptures? 

the Spirit and Word to these; but in no other way can 
they learn of their future, or what provision has been 
made for themselves in the boundless wealth and di- 
versified wisdom of God, because, as here stated, it is to 
be i l made known " " through the Church. ' ' 

These condemned angels have been learning much 
since the first text and sermon; — not only the lesson of 
our Lord's obedience and exaltation (i Pet. 3 : 18-20; 
1 Tim. 3: 16), but also of his followers; for we read that 
"we are made a spectacle both to angels and to men." 
(1 Cor. 4:9 — DiaglotL) The spectacle and lesson are 
to both men and angels for the reason that both men 
and angels will shortly be judged by the Church, and 
blessed by it, if found obedient and worthy of life. 
When the testimony in due time is given, all things, 
both in heaven (the spiritual condition) and on earth 
(the human), shall bow to Jehovah's Anointed and con- 
fess him their Lord and Ruler; and those who refuse 
obedience to his righteous authority shall be cut off from 
life, — destroyed as unworthy of life. — Isa. 45:23; Rom. 
14:11; Acts 3:23. 

The angels that sinned in the days of Noah have 
had a bitter experience since: no doubt death would 
have been preferable in many respects. Cut off from 
association with good angels, and placed in companion- 
ship of each other and Satan, without God and having 
no hope, they must have had a terrible experience with 
sin's demoralizing effects, while their observation of man- 
kind, dying on account of sin, would lead them to sur- 
mise that death might ultimately be their portion also. 
That such was the fear of these unclean spirits is evi- 
denced by the protest of one whom the Lord cast out: 
"Art thou come to destroy us?" (Mark 1:24; Luke 



Spirits in Prison. 117 

4: 34; Matt. 8: 29. ) But this no more proves tiiat their 
suppositions were correct, than the belief of millions of 
professed Christians, that nine-tenths of humanity will 
be everlastingly tormented, proves that to be so. The 
fact is, we find that Satan, who taught men thus to 
blaspheme God's character by his misrepresentation of 
the Divine plan, was the master and chief over these 
cast-down spirits; and evidently he has misrepresented 
Jehovah's plan to the imprisoned spirits as he has to 
men. He is the father of lies. 

Neither can we forget the respectful conduct of the 
fallen spirits toward our Lord and his apostles and the 
message they delivered; far more respectful indeed than 
that of the strictest sect of the Jewish Church. While 
the latter scoffed and said, ' ' Is not this Jesus, the son 
of Joseph ? ' ' (John 6 : 42 ), the fallen spirits exclaimed, 
" Thou art the Son of God. " (Mark 3:11.) While the 
former said, " Thou hast a devil and art mad," the 
latter said, "I know thee who thou art, the holy one of 
God." — Mark 1:24. 

The " legion," which had crazed the Gadarene, 
worshiped Christ, acknowledging him to be the "Son 
of the Most High God."— Mark 5: 6, 7. 

While they respected the true, they opposed the 
false, saying to some who pretended to exorcise them— 
"Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? 
And the man in whom the evil spirit was, leaped on 
them and overcame them." — Acts 19: 15. 

Both Jews and Gentiles beat and stoned the mes- 
sengers of God, when they came among them with the 
glad tidings of salvation; but some of these fallen angels 
seemed desirous of spreading the glad tidings. One 
followed the Apostle Paul and Silas, saying, "These 



n8 What Say the Scriptures? 

men are the servants of the Most High God, which show 
unto us [angels and men] the way of salvation. ' ' — 
Acts 16 : 17. 

THE BASIS OF HOPE FOR THE FALLEN ANGELS. 



But an important question now arises. The Script- 
ures show us that human hope centers in the fact that a 
ransom-price was given for Adam's sin; but what is the 
basis of hope for these fallen angels ? On what ground 
can they now be granted a trial with a hope for ever- 
lasting life ? Did our Lord Jesus die for them ? 

We are not so informed. The ransom-sacrifice was 
human, a ransom for men. " Verily," says Paul, "he 
took not on him the nature of angels," etc. (Heb. 2 : 
16.) Furthermore, the angels were not under condem- 
nation to death, and hence have never lost their life in 
any measure, and need no ransom from death. It was 
because the sentence of death had passed upon men that 
a ransom was necessary in order that we might regain 
life. Those angels which kept not their first estate were 
condemned not to death, but to restraint and confine- 
ment, until the day of trial, when God will judge both 
men and angels in righteousness by that man whom he 
hath ordained. (Acts 17: 31.) They are therefore un- 
dergoing their penalty as truly as man is suffering his 
penalty, tho the penalties be very different in kind, — 
" according to the much diversified wisdom of God." 

And yet these fallen angels had a great interest in 
our Lord's sacrifice; for tho they were not being re- 
deemed, bought, by the precious blood, as was man, 
and did not need to be, not being under condemnation 
to death, yet their hope centered in the power with 



Spirits in Prison, 119 

which he should be rewarded by his exaltation to the 
divine nature, in consequence of his obedience even unto 
death. He is now Lord and judge of both the living and 
the dead; — the dead and dying world of mankind, and 
the living angels, never condemned to death. — Rom. 14:9. 

Again, if we have a correct view of the matter, that 
these angels were largely tempted and seduced by evil in 
men, which had become very great (Gen. 6:5), we may 
see how the reconciliation accomplished by the blood of 
the cross for man could apply to and cancel both direct 
and indirect guilt, if it resulted from the one man's dis- 
obedience. So that now we are assured in the words of 
the Apostle, ' ' It pleased the Father, . . . having made 
peace [propitiation — satisfaction] through the blood of 
his cross, by him to reconcile unto himself all things 
[out of harmony] ; . . . whether things in earth [human], 
or things in heaven [angelic]." — Col. 1: 20. 

These things are written that ye c ' may be able to 
comprehend with all saints the lengths and the breadths, 
the heights and the depths, and to appreciate the love 
of Christ which passeth all understanding," and that 
believing ye may rejoice with joy unspeakable. "Oh 
the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowl- 
edge of God."— Eph. 3: 17, 18; Rom. 11:33. 



WHAT SAY THE SCRIPTURES 
ABOUT HELL? 

AN EXAMINATION OF EVERY TEXT OF SCRIPTURE IN WHICH THE 
WORD "HELL" IS FOUND. 

A CORRECT understanding of the subject of this booklet is almost 
a necessity to Christian steadfastness. For centuries it has been the 
teaching of " orthodoxy,' ' of all shades, that God, before creating man, 
had created a great abyss of fire and terrors, capable of containing all 
the billions of the human family which he purposed to bring into being; 
that this abyss he had named "hell;" and that all of the promises 
and threatenings of the Bible were designed to deter as many as possi- 
ble (a "little flock") from such wrong-doing as would make this awful 
place their perpetual home. 

While glad to see superstitions fall, and truer ideas of the great, 
and wise, and just, and loving Creator prevail, we are alarmed to notice 
that the tendency with all who abandon this long revered doctrine is 
toward doubt, skepticism, infidelity. Why should this be the case, 
when the mind is merely being delivered from an error? — do you ask? 
Because Christian people have so long been taught that the foundation 
for this awful blasphemy against God's character and government is 
deeplaid and firmly fixed in the Word of God — the Bible — and con- 
sequently, to whatever degree their belief in " hell " is shaken, to that 
extent their faith in the Bible, as the revelation of the true God, is 
shaken also; — so that those who have dropped their belief in a "hell," 
of some kind of endless torment, are often open infidels, and scoffers at 
God's Word. 

Guided by the Lord's providence to a realization that the Bible 
has been slandered, as well as its divine Author, and that, rightly un- 
derstood, it teaches nothing on this subject derogatory to God's char- 
acter nor to an intelligent reason, we have attempted in this booklet to 
lay bare the Scripture teaching on this subject, that thereby faith in 
God and his Word may be reestablished, on a better, a reasonable 
foundation. Indeed, it is our opinion that whoever shall hereby find 
that his false view rested upon human misconceptions and misinterpre- 
tations will, at the same time, learn to trust hereafter less to his own 
and other men's imaginings, and, by faith, to grasp more firmly the 
Word of God, which is able to make wise unto salvation ; and on this 
mission, under God's providence, it is sent forth. 

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"THE PLAN OF THE AGES." 

356 PAGES. 

VOLUME I. OF THE 

MILLENNIAL DAWN SERIES. 

A lucid presentation of the Divine Plan of Salvation in 
brief space and simple language ; — adapted to the learned 
and the unlearned. 

Recognition of the fa<5t that God has divided his work 
of salvation into different parts, and that the different ages 
are set apart for the perfecting of the different portions 
of the grand whole, is the Key which unlocks the treasures 
of the Divine Word. This is the feature of this work, 
and in this it is but following out the Apostolic rule, given 
to Timothy, for "rightly dividing the Word of Truth.' ' 

Possibly no other book (the Bible excepted) has ever 
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took one set of texts for its basis, another denomination 
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"THE TIME IS AT HAND." 

370 PAGES. 

VOLUME II. OF THE 

MILLENNIAL DAWN SERIES. 

This volume calls attention to the fact that we are even 
now in the " harvest' ' of the Gospel age and, that the 
dawning of the Millennium is lapping upon it. It calls 
special attention to those Scriptures which indicate what 
will be the manner of our Lord's second coming, and 
shows clearly that in many respects his people have had 
as false ideas respecting the manner of their Master's 
second coming as respecting its object. 

No Bible student can fail to receive profit from the 
studies presented in this volume respecting the typical feat- 
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Parallels between the Jewish and Gospel ages. The review 
of " Gentile Times" showing their close in a. d. 1914 is 
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"THY KINGDOM COME." 

384 PAGES. 

VOLUME III. OF THE 

MILLENNIAL DAWN SERIES. 

This volume contains meat in due season for all of God's 
truth-hungry children. Its chapters on the "The Time of 
the End," "The Days of Waiting for the Kingdom/ ' 
"The Time of Harvest" and "The Work of Harvest" 
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Great Pyramid of Egypt and its significance as a stone wit- 
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"THE DAY OF VENGEANCE." 

660 PAGES. 

VOLUME IV. OF THE 

MILLENNIAL DAWN SERIES. 

Herein we have a careful and conscientious review of 
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of the reasonable deductions and inferences respecting 
things which must shortly come to pass. 

The title would seem to indicate extreme pessimism, but 
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out the dark clouds about us, and a terrible storm immedi- 
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the storm, when the Sun of Righteousness shall shine forth 
with restitution healing in his beams. 

A very valuable feature of this volume is its presentation 
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This volume will make warm friends as well as warm ene- 
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and poor. It enters sympathetically into the difficulties 
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the only hope before the "groaning creation " is the one 
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